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ESSAYS 

EDUCATIONAL 
and  HISTORIC  or 

X-RAYS 

ON   SOME 
IMPORTANT  EPISODES 

By  a  Member  of  the 
ORDER  OF  MERCY  i 

Author  of  "  Leaves  from  the  Annals  of 

the  Sisters  of  Mercy" 
''Life  of  Catherine  McAuley" 
"  Life  of  St.  Alphonsus" 
"  Life  of  Von  Clement  M.  Hofbauer" 
"  Glimpses  of  Pleasant  Homes  " 
"Happy  Hours  of  Childhood" 
"Angel  Dreams,"  "By  the  Seaside,"  etc. 

NEW  YORK 

1  9  BARCLAY  ST. 

1899                             j 

Copyright,  1899, 

BY 

O'SHEA    &    CO. 


TO   THE 

Revered  and  Beloved  Memory 

OV    MY 

Dearly  Loved  Friend 

AND  Sister  in  Religion,  Rev.  Mother 

M.  Baptist  Russell, 

Late  Superior  of  the  Sisters  of  Mercy, 

San  Francisco, 

I  Dedicate  This  Work. 


V    / 


£18 


CONTENTS 


_       Education  in  Louisiana  in  French  Colonial  Days 9 

Education  in  Louisiana  in  Spanish  Colonial  Days 51 

The  Church  of  the  Attakapas 96 

^       Forty  Years  in  the  American  Wilderness     142 

c\l       When  Brigham  Young  Was  King 192 

§       About  the  Utah  Saints 223 

A  Glance  at  the  Latter-Day  Saints 250 

The  Nine-Days'  Queen 266 

O      The  Battle  of  the  Boyne  and  the  Sieges  of  Limerick..  324 

ij;      Alabama  :  "Here  We  Rest» 35^ 

r>      Mary  of  Modena  and  the  Jacobites.     Part  I 371 

^      Mary  of  Modena  and  the  Jacobites.     Part  II 391 

u 

-i 
< 


.5  ^*y£ro 


PREFACE 


TN  compliance  with  the  wishes  of  many,  the  following 
^  papers  have  been  republished  from  the  American 
Catholic  Quarterly  Review,  the  Irish  Monthly,  and  the  New 
Orleans  Daily  Item,  proper  authorization  for  that  purpose 
having  been  received. 

Convent  of  Mercy, 

mobile,  ala. 

Feasl  of  Our  Ladv  ad  Nives,  l8g(). 


EDUCATION  IN  LOUISIANA  IN  FRENCH 

COLONIAL  DAYS 

I 

pAST  winter  the  Louisiana  Education  Society 
asked  for  original  essays  on  educational  mat- 
ters, wishing  to  obtain  "  the  most  practical 
thought  and  careful  thinking  in  this  line." 

The  desire  to  receive  practical  information  on  this 
vitally  important  subject  is  a  hopeful  sign.  For  as 
soon  as  people  say  there  is  no  more  for  them  to  learn, 
progress  is  at  an  end ;  or  should  any  avenues  of  prog- 
ress remain  open  to  them,  it  will  be  of  that  species 
which  a  humorous  native  of  a  certain  island,  not  un- 
known in  song  and  story,  graphically  described  as 
"  progress  to  the  rear." 

Ignorance  has  been  called  the  foundation  of 
knowledge.  An  ignorant  man  has  one  advantage 
over  an  ill-educated  man  :  he  has  nothing  to  unlearn. 
In  a  similar  sense  repentance  may  be  the  foundation 
of  virtue;  there  is  hope  for  the  evil-doer  who  admits 
he  has  done  wrong;  while  little  good  is  expected  of 
one  who  argues  himself  into  the  belief  that  wrong  is 
right,  and  that  there  is  nothing  in  him  susceptible  of 
improvement. 

A  philosopher  of  the  Middle  Ages  reproached  a 
conceited  brother  of  the  same  craft  with  being  unable 

y 


Education  in  Louisiana 

to  say  '*  nescio"  The  reproach  of  St.  Bernard  to 
Ab^lard  can  scarcely  be  made  to  the  above  body,  for 
if  its  members  had  seen  no  room  for  improvement  in 
the  methods  employed  with  their  sanction,  they 
would  not  have  sought  to  obtain  "more  practical 
thought  in  this  line." 

But  none  of  our  contemporary  educators  appear  to 
have  sought  any  light  on  early  education  in  Louisiana. 
Perhaps  they  deem  history  a  blank  as  to  its  educa- 
tional aspect  in  Colonial  and  tarly  American  times. 
The  itinerant  lecturer,  like  the  schoolmaster,  has  been 
"  abroad "  during  the  pleasant  winters  of  Louisiana, 
and  the  business  of  this  functionary  seems  to  be  to 
tell  the  rising  generation  that,  despite  the  statesman- 
ship, military  renown,  and  philanthropy  of  the  past, 
the  light  that  was  in  these  regions  was  darkness. 
Why?  Because  there  were  no  godless  schools.  The 
South  was  slow  to  introduce  a  system  which  came 
when  Colonial  days  were  over,  and  which  experience 
has  proved  to  be  subversive  of  religion  and  morality, 
as  indeed  its  originators  intended  it  should  be.  (See 
Brownson's  "  Convert,"  chapters  7  and  8.) 

We  will  endeavor  to  show  some  deeds  of  our  pred- 
ecessors "  in  this  line,"  which  perhaps  may  awaken 
in  a  few  a  desire  to  know  more  of  what  was  under- 
taken in  the  distant  past,  in  the  face  of  tremendous 
obstacles,  that  in  this  respect  a  tardy  justice  may  be 
done  to  the  "brave  days  of  old."  And  some  who 
imagine  that  nothing  which  they  cannot  remember 
was  ever  done  for  popular  education  in  this  State,  may 

10 


In  French  Colonial  Days 

be  glad  to  have  brought  under  their  notice  the  earliest 
efforts  made  to  educate  the  youth  of  "  Notre  Chere 
Louisiane." 

To  elucidate  this  theme  thoroughly,  it  would  be 
well  to  give  a  synopsis  of  the  history  of  Louisiana, 
the  dynasties  that  took,  but  would  not  keep,  for  their 
crowns  so  fair  a  jewel,  the  men  of  renown  who  so- 
journed within  her  borders,  the  feats  of  arms  done  in 
her  defense  by  loyal  citizens  and  reclaimed  privateers, 
the  Indian  wars  raging  almost  without  truce,  the 
foreign  and  civil  wars,  the  stock-jobbing  of  Law,  who 
was  to  create  wealth,  so  to  say,  by  the  wand  of  a 
magician.  These  remarkable  men,  and  deeds  of  valor, 
and  banking  bubbles,  had  their  influence  on  education, 
and  it  would  be  a  pleasing  task  to  trace  it  in  its  vari- 
ous phases  through  administrative,  municipal,  reli- 
gious, and  domestic  life.  But  all  this  will  appear 
sufficiently  for  our  purpose  in  the  tenor  of  these 
pages. 

II 

La  Salle  reached  the  Mississippi  April  6,  1682. 
On  the  9th,  he  baptized  the  country  which  he  had  ex- 
plored by  the  sweet-sounding  name  Louisiana,  and  his 
chaplain,  in  presence  of  twenty-three  French,  eighteen 
Abnaki,  ten  Indian  women,  and  three  children,  blessed 
Louisiana  and  dedicated  it  to  God  amid  the  roaring  of 
cannon,  the  singing  of  hymns,  and  the  recital  of 
appropriate  prayers.     Five  years  later,  La  Salle  was 

It 


Education   in  Louisiana 

assassinated.  Nothing  was  done  to  colonize  the  im- 
mense territory  of  which  he  had  been  viceroy.  His 
grand  discovery  was  almost  forgotten,  and  the  Father 
of  Waters  disappeared  from  the  navigators'  charts. 
When  another  famous  mariner,  Iberville,  entered  the 
great  river  by  the  gulf,  March  2,  1699,  not  a  hut  was 
to  be  seen.  Sea-marsh  and  virgin  forests  greeted  his 
eyes;  but,  as  time  wore  on,  mementos  of  the  earlier 
sailors  appeared.  A  letter,  or  speaking  bark,  from 
Tonti,  and  a  breviary  in  which  was  written  the  name 
of  a  companion  of  La  Salle,  were  given  to  Iberville  by 
an  Indian,  and  Tonti  himself  came,  like  a  ghost  from 
the  past,  to  tell  the  mighty  deeds  of  his  brave  but  un- 
fortunate master  to  the  mariners  now  following  up  his 
discoveries. 

Chevalier  Tonti,  La  Salle's  trusted  friend,  was 
known  as  "the  Man  of  the  Copper  Hand."  The  loss 
of  a  hand  in  the  wars  in  Sicily  he  had  repaired  by  one 
made  of  copper. 

The  premature  death  of  Sauvolle  in  Biloxi,  and  of 
Iberville  in  the  West  Indies,  left  the  sole  care  of 
Louisiana  to  their  brother  Bienville,  who  became  the 
founder  of  New  Orleans  and  Mobile. 

When  Bienville,  with  unerring  sagacity,  selected 
on  a  bend  of  the  great  river  the  best  site  for  a  com- 
mercial emporium,  he  set  fifty  men  (1718)  to  clear  the 
soil  of  its  rank  vegetation  and  build  huts  of  moss  and 
wattles,  roofed  with  bark  and  palmetto.  In  1722,  just 
as  the  capital  had  been  transferred  to  Nouvelle-Orleans 
from  the  lonely  beach  of  Biloxi,  there  were  one  hun- 

13 


In  French  Colonial  Days 

dred  cabins  scattered  over  the  highest  patches  of  the 
morass,  and  Charlevoix,  who  visited  the  embryo  city, 
was  touched  by  the  spiritual  destitution  of  the  white 
settlers  and  the  Indians  whose  camp-fires  lit  up  the 
river  banks  and  sparkled  in  the  dense  forests  beyond 
the  flimsy  palisade.  There  was  no  need  of  schools. 
Few  children,  if  any,  had  come  to  bless  the  dismal 
kraal  in  which  the  keen-eyed  Charlevoix  saw  the 
nucleus  of  a  populous  and  opulent  city.  In  1723  the 
Bishop  of  Quebec  sent  Franciscans  to  the  white 
settlers,  and  in  1724  Jesuits  came  to  evangelize  the 
Indians.  By  1726  many  women  had  joined  their  hus- 
bands, and  children  were  frolicking  in  the  jungle  and 
staring  with  terror  in  their  wide  eyes  at  the  alligators 
that  wriggled  in  the  moat  and  the  frogs  that  croaked 
forever  in  the  slime.  At  that  early  date  the  sagacious 
Bienville  was  devising  ways  and  means  to  furnish  the 
Colony  with  good  schools.  He  was  too  acute  not  to 
perceive  that  families  would  not  establish  permanent 
homes  in  the  Colony  unless  educational  facilities 
were  provided  for  their  children.  A  boys'  school 
arose  at  once  beside  the  warehouse  that  did  duty  for 
a  church,  and  the  first  teacher  that  ever  instructed  the 
youth  of  Louisiana  was  Father  Cecil,  a  Capuchin 
monk. 

So  far  as  I  can  learn,  no  picture  or  memorial  of 
this  pioneer  of  literary  and  scientific  education  exists 
in  any  college  of  Louisiana.  In  the  university  en- 
dowed by  Mr.  Tulane  I  saw  pictures  of  several  persons 
supposed    to   be   connected    with    education    in    this 

13 


Education  in  Louisiana 

State,  but  not  one  of  them  wore  the  friar's  frock.  And 
none  of  the  wandering  lecturers,  who  so  frequently 
come  to  enlighten  Louisiana  on  her  history  and  edu- 
cational progress,  has  begun  at  the  beginning  and  told 
his  audience  of  Father  Cecil.  And  yet  in  giving  a 
history  of  what  rivermen  call  steamboating,  any 
lecturer  would  tell  of  Robert  Fulton,  and  search  into 
his  parentage,  rightly  believing  that  those  who  gave 
him  being  were  glorified  by  his  genius.  They  might 
say,  like  one*  of  his  biographers,  that,  though  born  of 
Irish  parents,  "his  remote  ancestors  were  probably  of 
Scottish  origin."  Had  the  educationalists  heard  of 
Father  Cecil,  they  might  deem  it  "  probable"  that  his 
"remote  ancestors"  were  of  New  England,  and  him- 
self a  priest  like  Wyclif.  But  that  they  completely 
ignore  Father  Cecil,  shows  that  they  have  never  heard 
of  him. 

Bienville,  anxious  to  root  families  to  the  soil,  and 
knowing  that  civilization  depends  largely  on  the  care- 
ful training  of  girls,  took  extraordinary  pains  to  secure 
capable  teachers ;  and,  as  the  best  were  to  be  found 
in  convents, —  religious  being  then  the  only  persons 
who  adopted  teaching  as  a  life  profession, —  he  turned 
to  his  native  Canada  for  Soeurs  Crises.  But,  to  his 
great  grief,  his  project  proved  impracticable.  He 
consulted  Father  Beaubois,  Superior  of  the  Jesuits,  a 
man  of  great  zeal  and  energy.  Their  views  were 
identical,  and  Beaubois  offered  to  apply  to  the  Ursu- 

*  Mr.    Rennick,   who   perhaps  did  not  know  that  the   remote 
Scotch  were  all  Irish. 


In  French  Colonial  Days 

lines  of  Rouen.  After  much  negotiation,  a  treaty 
was  concluded,  September  13,  1726,  by  which  these 
ladies  engaged  to  supply  teachers  and  nurses  for  New 
Orleans.  It  was,  then,  through  the  Jesuits  that  the 
first  school  for  girls  and  the  first  regular  hospital  were 
established  in  the  Louisiana  of  La  Salle,  which  ex- 
tended from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Mexican  Gulf, 
and  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Rocky  Mountains. 

A  lady  bearing  the  somewhat  singular  name  of 
Tranchepain  {slice  of  bread')  was  appointed  Superior. 
Mother  Tranchepain,  a  convert  from  Calvinism,  had 
taken  the  veil  among  the  Ursulines  in  Rouen,  in  1699. 
The  contradictions,  disappointments,  and  trials  that 
wait  upon  all  great  enterprises  were  not  wanting  to 
this.  Bishops  who  at  first  approved  of  their  design, 
afterwards  refused  to  allow  nuns  of  their  respective 
dioceses  to  leave,  and  some  were  obliged  to  appeal  to 
Cardinal  Fleury.*  Louis  XV.,  of  whom  so  little  good 
can  be  said,  was  a  generous  patron  of  this  work,  as  the 
breve  or  official  letter  setting  forth  its  objects  and 
conditions  testifies.     Here  is  an  extract: 

"His  Majesty,  wishing  to  favor  everything  that 
can  contribute  to  the  relief  of  the  sick  and  the  educa- 
tion of  the  young,  has  approved  the  treaty  made  be- 
tween the  Company  of  the  Indies  and  the  Ursuline 
Religious,  the   intention   of    His   Majesty  being  that 

*  Almost  all  the  Ursulines  in  France  were  volunteers  in  the 
good  cause,  and  those  obliged  to  remain  at  home  had  a  holy  envv 
of  those  selected  for  this  perilous  mission. 

15 


Education  in  Louisiana 

they  should  enjoy,  without  interference,  all  that  has 
been  or  shall  be  granted  to  them  by  the  said  Com- 
pany. His  Majesty  takes  them  under  his  protection 
and  safeguard,  and  in  proof  of  his  good  will  has  com- 
manded the  hastening  of  the  present  Letters  Patent, 
which  he  has  willed  to  sign  with  his  own  hand. — Fon- 
tainebleau,  September  i8,  1726." 

All  the  nuns  for  the  Louisiana  mission  assembled 
in  the  monastery  of  Hennebon,  in  Brittany,  to  ac- 
knowledge as  Superior  Marie  Tranchepain  of  St.  Au- 
gustin,  January  i,  1727.  Their  action  was  confirmed 
by  two  letters  from  the  Bishop  of  Quebec,  Monseig- 
neur  Delacroix,  one  to  Mother  Tranchepain,  the  other 
to  Father  Beaubois.  Louisiana  was  in  his  diocese, 
Quebec  being  under  the  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Rouen.  The  missionary  nuns 
were  twelve.  They  gave  their  submission  according 
to  their  respective  ranks,  eager  to  sacrifice  themselves 
for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  their  fellow 
creatures,  and  filled  with  a  holy  enthusiasm  which 
helped  them  in  their  sublime  vocation.  Two,  at  least, 
the  Mother  Superior  an-d  the  novice,  Madeleine  Hach- 
ard,  of  Rouen,  have  left  in  their  "Relations"  evidence 
not  only  of  sincere  devotion  to  God  and  ardent  zeal 
for  souls,  which  they  possessed  in  common  with  the 
rest,  but  also  of  liberal  scholarship,  fine  culture,  and 
unusual  intellectual  ability. 

The  terms  offered  by  the  Indian  Company,  under 
whose  auspices  they  were  to  sail,  evinced  great  interest 

16 


In  French  Colonial  Days 

in  the  sick  and  the  children.  They  traveled  at  the 
expense  of  the  Company,  and  each  received,  before 
embarking,  a  gift  of  500  livres.  Until  their  plantation 
should  be  in  full  cultivation,  each  was  guaranteed  600 
livres  a  year.  A  spacious  convent,  in  course  of  erec- 
tion, was  given  them  in  perpetuity.  Three  nuns  were 
to  be  always  at  the  service  of  the  hospital ;  one  was 
set  aside  for  the  free  school,  and  one  to  help  her  in 
case  of  overwork.  It  was  expressly  stipulated  that 
those  in  charge  of  the  sick  and  the  free  schools  must 
not  be  disturbed.  This  shows  that  New  Orleans  was 
scarcely  founded  when  provision  of  the  most  liberal 
and  excellent  description  was  made  for  the  education 
of  the  "masses."  Should  the  nuns,  through  want  of 
health,  or  any  other  cause,  wish  to  return  to  France, 
they  were  free  to  go  at  the  expense  of  the  Company. 
But  not  one  looked  back  after  having  put  her  hand  to 
the  plough. 

Ill 

On  the  twenty-seventh  of  January,  1727,  the  nuns 
looked  their  last  on  Paris,  whence  they  journeyed  to 
L'Orient,  delayed  by  execrable  roads  and  bad  weather, 
but  bright  and  cheerful  under  all  contrarieties.  On 
February  22d,  a  day  since  memorable  in  the  history  of 
the  United  States,  they  bade  adieu  to  their  country, 
"for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  the  poor 
savages."  They  sailed  in  the  Gironde  with  the  Jesuit 
Fathers,  Tartarin  and  Doutreleau,  and  "  Fr^re  Crucy," 
who,  with  Madeleine  Hachard,  being  the  youngest  of 
2  17 


Education  in  Louisiana 

the  party,  considered  it  "their  duty  to  amuse  the 
rest."  No  words  of  ours  can  describe,  nor  would  it  be 
easy  to  imagine,  in  these  days  of  rapid  travel,  Pullman 
boudoirs,  and  ocean  palaces,  the  sufferings  of  those 
"who  went  down  to  the  sea  in  ships"  a  hundred  and 
sixty  years  ago.  The  voyage  had  its  chroniclers ; 
every  incident  is  vividly  described  in  the  letters  and 
diaries  of  Mother  Tranchepain  and  Sister  Hachard, 
which  have  most  unaccountably  escaped  the  re- 
searches of  all  the  historians  and  romancists  of  Louis- 
iana. These  ladies,  first  teachers  of  Louisiana,  wrote 
with  ease  and  elegance,  and  a  grace  and  liveliness 
which  the  lecturers  who  expatiate  so  perseveringly  on 
the  benighted  times  of  old  could  not,  we  fear,  equal. 
It  would  take  too  long  to  give  details  of  this  seven 
months'  journey  from  Paris  to  New  Orleans,  over  the 
stormy  Atlantic,  among  the  West  Indian  Isles,  on  the 
Caribbean  Sea  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  up  the 
Mississippi.*  Now  they  were  threatened  with  a 
watery  grave,  again  with  starvation  and  thirst ;  once 
the  ship  barely  escaped  hostile  corsairs;  later  they  en- 
countered savages  of  so  peculiarly  ferocious  a  type 
that  they  murdered  by  slow  tortures  all  the  whites 
they  captured,  and  made  every  victim  drink  his  own 
blood. 

Probably  no  scene  on  earth  is  so  bleak  and  dreary 
as  the  entrance  from  the  Gulf  to  the  Mississippi.     An 

*  The  Spanish  annals  add  to  the  trials  of  their  voyage  the  cru- 
elty of  the  Captain,  but  no  mention  is  made  of  this  in  the  letters 
of  Madeleine  Hachard. 

i8 


In  French    Colonial  Days 

interminable  waste  of  waters,  a  vast  morass  impassable 
for  man  or  beast,  shoals  and  sand  bars,  low  strips  of 
coast  covered  with  poplars,  prairies  of  reeds,  a  wilder- 
ness of  cane-brakes — the  mouths  of  the  river  were 
then  strewn  with  driftwood  and  half-choked  with 
wrecks.  As  they  ascended,  forests  that  seemed  coeval 
with  the  creation  ;  here  and  there  a  solitary  hut  for 
pilots,  stretches  of  green  savannah,  gaunt  trunks  of 
trees  stuck  fast  in  the  sand,  snags,  to-day  the  crux  of 
the  river-man,  gigantic  cypress  shrouded  in  funereal 
moss,  half-submerged  in  the  yellow  waves.  Gloom 
and  magnificence  everywhere  mingled ;  fishes  disport- 
ing themselves  ruffled  the  old-gold  surface  of  the  mel- 
ancholy river ;  blue  cranes  like  flying  skeletons  hovered 
about  the  masts ;  swarthy,  half-nude  natives  in  pi- 
rogues and  chaloupes  glided  among  the  wondrous 
waves,  shimmering  in  the  mystic  charm  of  the  summer 
sunlight.  But  dreadful  was  the  navigation  of  the 
lower  Mississippi  in  those  days.  "  The  trials  and  fa- 
tigues of  our  five  months'  sea  voyage,"  writes  our  nov- 
ice, "  are  not  to  be  compared  with  what  we  had  to 
endure  in  our  journey  from  the  Gulf  to  New  Orleans, 
a  distance  of  thirty  leagues." 

As  the  Sisters  neared  their  future  home,  the  flat 
monotony  of  the  landscape  was  agreeably  diversified 
by  masses  of  dark  foliage,  sparkling  at  night  with  fire- 
flies, which  made  a  gorgeous  illumination.  Planters' 
houses  squatting  among  the  half-cleared  areas, —  huge, 
unwieldy  structures,  wide  halls  dividing  their  whole 
length, —  the   river   beating  against  the  edge  of  the 

19 


Education   in  Louisiana 

miry  ground  and  threatening  to  submerge  it ;  right 
joyfully  were  the  travelers  welcomed  by  the  habitans, 
"  honest  people  from  France  or  Canada,  who  will  send 
us  their  children."  "They  are  enthusiastic  over  our 
arrival,  because  they  will  not  now  be  obliged  to  go  to 
France  to  educate  their  daughters." 

The  nuns  reached  New  Orleans  on  August  7, 
1727.  An  early  writer  has  described  the  village  as  a 
vast  sink  or  sewer.  It  was  surrounded  by  a  deep 
ditch,  and  fenced  with  sharp  stakes,  wedged  closely 
together.  Tall  reeds  and  coarse  grasses  grew  in  the 
streets,  and  a  stone's  throw  from  the  rickety  church 
reptiles  hissed,  and  wild  beasts  and  malefactors  lurked, 
protected  by  impenetrable  jungle.  Our  novice  gives 
a  flattering  description  of  the  town  :  "  It  is  very  hand- 
some, well-built,  and  regularly  laid  out.  .  .  .  The 
streets  are  wide  and  straight;  the  houses  wainscoted 
and  latticed,  the  roofs  supported  by  whitewashed  pil- 
lars and  covered  with  shingles,  that  is,  thin  boards  cut 
to  resemble  slates,  and  imitating  them  to  perfection. 
.  The  colonists  sing  that  our  town  is  as  beauti- 
ful as  Paris.  But  I  find  a  difference.  The  songs  may 
persuade  those  who  have  never  seen  the  capital  of 
France.  But  I  have  seen  it,  and  they  fail  to  persuade 
me." 

The  tropical  gorgeousness  of  the  vegetation 
charmed  her.  The  country,  save  for  a  small  space 
about  the  church,  was  thickly  wooded  to  the  water's 
edge,  and  the  trees  were  of  prodigious  height.  The 
streets  and  squares,  laid  out  by  the  engineer.  La  Tour, 


hi    French    Colonial   Days 

were  still  mostly  on  paper  only.  The  air  was  on  fire 
with  mosquitoes,  every  one  provided  with  a  sting  like 
a  fine,  red-hot  nail.  Yet  she  found  the  climate  balmy 
and  soothing,  and  readily  believed  the  boast  of  the 
Creoles  that  it  was  the  most  salubrious  on  earth.  She 
remarks  that  those  who  had  given  the  nuns  a  poor 
idea  of  the  place  had  not  seen  its  progress  for  several 
years.  The  tremendous  hurricane  of  1723  had  swept 
away  the  cabins  in  which  the  earliest  settlers  had 
found  a  miserable  shelter.  And  the  town  was  rebuilt 
on  a  scale  of  modest  splendor,  which  surprised  and  de- 
lighted the  nuns. 

Mother  Tranchepain  dilates  on  her  joy  and  consola- 
tion on  touching  the  soil  of  New  Orleans:  "We  set 
out  for  Father  Beaubois's  house,  and  met  him  coming 
towards  us,  leaning  on  a  staff  because  of  his  weakness. 
He  looked  pale  and  weary,  but  on  seeing  us  brightened 
up  " — he  was  recovering  from  a  dangerous  illness.  A 
crayon  sketch,  kindly  lent  the  writer  by  the  amiable 
successor  of  Mother  Tranchepain,  gives  a  lively  repre- 
sentation of  the  "  Landing  of  the  Ursulines."  The 
nuns  are  in  procession,  wearing  the  ample  garb  of  their 
Order.  Sister  Hachard's  fine,  strong  lineaments  are 
partially  concealed  by  the  flowing  white  veil  of  a  nov- 
ice. Father  Beaubois  presents  them  to  the  Capuchin 
pastors  of  the  town,  and  points  out  the  Indians  and 
negroes,  their  future  charges.  A  negress,  holding  a 
solemn  ebony  baby,  regards  the  group  with  awe 
and  wonderment.  A  beautiful  squaw,  decked  with 
beads  and  shells,  surrounded  by  plump  papooses,  half 

21 


Education   in  Louisiana 

reclines  with  natural  grace  on  some  logs,  and  a  very 
large  Congo  negro  has  dropped  his  work  and  betaken 
himself  to  the  top  of  a  woodpile  to  gaze  leisurely 
on  the  scene.  Claude  Massy,  an  Ursuline  postulant, 
carries  a  cat  which  she  tenderly  caresses;  another,  "  Sis- 
ter Anne,"  is  searching  a  basket  for  something.  Both 
wear  the  high-peaked  Normandy  cap.  Franciscans, 
heavily  bearded,  and  Jesuits  in  large  cloaks,  appear  in 
the  distance.  Immense  trees,  which  have  long  since 
disappeared,  overshadow  the  whole  group.  The  pic- 
ture is  a  most  interesting  and  valuable  relic,  probably 
the  only  one  in  existence  which  shows  tout  ensemble 
the  first  schoolmasters  and  schoolmistresses  of  any 
country,  and  its  earliest  preachers  of  the  Gospel  of 
Peace. 

The  nuns  breakfasted  with  Father  Beaubois.  Gov- 
ernor Perier,  Madame  Perier,  and  all  the  chief  people 
welcomed  them  as  risen  from  the  dead,  for  they  had 
been  given  up  as  lost.  Bienville's  country  house,  the 
best  in  the  colony,  given  them  provisionally,  was  a 
two-story  edifice  with  a  flat  roof,  used  as  a  belvidere 
or  gallery,  situated  on  Bienville  street,  which  runs 
perpendicularly  to  the  river,  between  Royal  and 
Chartres  streets,  which  are  parallel  to  it.  Six  doors 
gave  ingress  and  egress  to  the  apartments  on  the 
ground  floor.  Large  and  numerous  windows,  with 
sashes  covered  with  fine  linen,  let  in  as  much  light  as 
glass.  The  garden  opened  on  Bienville  street.  From 
the  roof  the  nuns  might  gaze  on  a  scene  of  weird  and 
solemn  splendor.      Swamps  and  clumps  of  palmetto 


In  French    Colonial  Days 

and  tangled  vines ;  the  surrounding  wilderness  with 
groups  of  spreading  live  oaks  {chcnicres),  cut  up  by- 
glassy  bayous,  was  the  home  of  reptiles,  wild  beasts, 
vultures,  herons,  and  many  wondrous  specimens  of  the 
fauna  of  Louisiana.  Here  were  flocks  of  the  pelican, 
fabled  to  feed  its  young  from  its  bosom,  and  chosen 
as  a  symbol  of  the  teeming  soil  of  Louisiana  as  it  had 
been  chosen  from  earlier  times  as  a  beautiful  type  of 
]qs\\s,  plus pclicanus,  who  feeds  His  children  with  His 
own  Sacred  Body  and  Blood.  Our  novice  makes  the 
immense  trees,  which  surround  the  garden,  responsible 
for  the  terrible  atoms  she  caWs  frapp  cs  d'abord,  "which 
sting  without  mercy  and  threaten  to  assassinate  us." 
They  came  at  sunset  and,  after  preying  on  the  nuns 
all  night,  returned  to  the  woods  at  sunrise. 

The  holy  sacrifice  of  the  Mass  was  offered  for  the 
first  time  in  the  temporary  convent,  August  9,  1727, 
by  Father  Beaubois,  who  acted  as  chaplain  to  the 
little  community.  In  accordance  with  their  earnest 
desire,  he  placed  the  Blessed  Sacrament  in  the  taber- 
nacle, which  their  deft  fingers  had  lovingly  prepared, 
October  5th.  They  were  the  only  consecrated  virgins 
in  the  vast  region  now  known  as  the  United  States, 
and  it  would  not  be  easy  to  imagine  their  emotion 
when,  bowed  down  before  the  Awful  Presence,  they 
offered  reparation  to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus  for 
the  indifference  or  sinfulness  of  the  multitude,  and 
besought  the  Fountain  of  all  mercies  to  bestow  the 
gift  of  Faith  on  the  savages  they  had  come  so  far  to 
reclaim. 

23 


Education   in   Louisiana 

This,  then,  was  the  first  girls'  school  established  in 
Louisiana.  It  was  but  a  few  squares  from  the  vener- 
able hovel  on  the  south  of  the  church,  where  Father 
Cecil  taught  the  boys  of  the  town.  As  to  air,  light, 
spaciousness,  and  picturesqueness,  there  is  not  a  finer 
site  in  Louisiana  to-day.  It  was  established  primarily 
as  a  free  school.  The  receiving  of  the  rich  as  board- 
ers was  an  afterthought.  "  When  the  Religious  find 
it  convenient,"  says  a  contemporary  document,  "they 
may  take  paying  pupils,  if  they  judge  proper."  But 
it  was  expressly  stipulated  that  the  nuns  in  charge  of 
the  free  schools  and  the  sick  "  should  not  be  put  to 
teach  in  the  pension  school."  So  that  the  free  school, 
instead  of  being  the  outgrowth  of  a  new  idea  due 
to  our  northern  friends,  is  contemporaneous  with  the 
colonization  of  Louisiana. 

The  Sisters  at  once  began  to  teach  the  children 
and  extend  their  cares  to  the  sick,  the  Indians,  and  the 
blacks.  Sister  Hachard  praises  the  docility  of  the 
children,  "who  can  be  molded  as  one  pleases."  She 
says  it  is  easy  to  instruct  the  negroes  once  they  learn 
French,  but  "impossible  to  baptize  the  Indians  with- 
out trembling,  on  account  of  their  natural  propensity 
to  evil,  particularly  the  squaws,  who,  under  an  air  of 
modesty,  hide  the  passions  of  beasts."  The  Religious 
were  valued  throughout  the  colony  as  the  most  pre- 
cious gift  the  mother  country  could  bestow.  They 
were  loaded  with  presents.  Governor  Perier  and  his 
amiable  wife  often  visited  them.  The  Intendant, 
Delachaise,   who   "commanded    for    the    king    in    the 

-4 


In   French    Colonial  Days 

absence  of  the  governor,"  is  described  as  a  perfect 
gentleman  "who  refuses  nothing  we  ask  of  him." 
''The  marks  of  protection  we  receive  from  the  highest 
in  the  land  cause  us  to  be  respected  by  the  whole 
population.  This,"  continues  our  acute  novice, 
"  would  not  last  long  if  we  did  not  sustain  by  our 
actions  the  exalted  opinion  they  have  of  us." 

IV 

The  community  which  thus  auspiciously  began  the 
work  of  education  in  Louisiana  consisted  of  eight  pro- 
fessed members,*  one  novice,  and  two  candidates. 
"Never,"  says  our  novice,  "was  any  other  community 
so  well  accommodated  in  the  beginning  of  its  exist- 
ence." The  house  soon  became  too  small  for  the 
number  of  pupils,  ever  increasing.  A  solid  brick  con- 
vent of  ample  dimensions  was  in  course  of  construction 
at  the  other  extremity  of  the  town.  The  Indian 
Company  promised  to  have  it  ready  in  six  months, 
which  space  lengthened  out  to  seven  years.  The 
gentlemen  who  had  begun  with  so  much  diligence 
grew  weary  of  welldoing. 

Neither  tears  nor  solicitations  could  prevail  on 
them  to  supply  material  and  finish  the  work.  The 
nuns    grew    disheartened.     They    had    no    pecuniary 

*  I,  Mother  M.Augustine  Tranchepain ;  2,  Sisters  Margue- 
rite Judde;  3,  Marianne  Boulanger;  4,  Madeleine  de  Mahieu ;  5, 
Renee  Singuel;  6,  Marguerite  de  Talaon ;  7,  Cecilia  Cavelier ;  8, 
Marianne  Dain ;  9,  Madeleine  Hachard,  Claude  Massy,  and  a 
candidate  styled  simply  Sister  Anne. 

25 


Education  in  Louisiana 

means  to  forward  it,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  they 
contrived  to  live  in  a  new  country  where  the  prices  of 
provisions  were  enormous.  "  God,  whose  designs 
are  impenetrable,"  writes  the  annalist,  "permitted 
that  several  who  had  worked  hardest  in  this  enterprise 
should  die  before  the  accomplishment  of  their  de- 
sires." A  most  efficient  member,  Sister  Madeleine  de 
Mahieu,  died  July  6,  1728;  Mother  Marguerite  Judde 
followed,  August  14,  1731,  and  Sister  Marguerite 
Talaon,  September  5,  1733.  On  November  11,  1733, 
the  brave  and  gentle  Superior,  Mother  Augustine 
Tranchepain,  "  submitted  to  the  same  penalty,  and, 
like  another  Moses,  expired  in  sight  of  the  promised 
land."  However  ardent  her  desires  of  seeing  the 
accomplishment  of  a  work  which  she  had  so  happily 
begun,  she  met  death  with  edifying  firmness,  and  was 
in  a  manner  angry  with  those  who  showed  some  ex- 
pectation of  her  recovery. 

Not  a  stone  upon  a  stone  remains  of  the  dwellings 
consecrated  by  the  joys  and  sorrows  of  that  heroic 
band,  exiles  for  Christ, —  Bienville's  villa.  Father  Ce- 
cil's venerable  schoolhouse,  the  church,  the  monk's  con- 
vent and  library,  and  the  arsenal  and  town-hall  perished 
in  the  dreadful  conflagration  of  Good  Friday,  1788, 
which  swept  away  nearly  nine  hundred  houses,  leaving 
thousands  homeless.  Tradition  asserts  that  the  nuns 
lived  some  time  on  their  plantation  and  points  out 
Nun  street,  a  short  street  flanked  with  cotton  presses 
and  opening  on  the  Lev^e,  as  the  site  of  their  coun- 
try   house.      The    nomenclature    of    the    streets    that 

26 


In  French    Colonial  Days 

form  a  network  over  what  is  supposed  to  have  been 
the  Ursuline  plantation,  recalls  the  holy  souls 
who  prayed  and  taught  within  its  limits,  Religions 
street,  Notre  Dame  street,  Annuneiation  street,  Teresa 
street,  etc. 

The  hospital  of  the  Sisters  usually  had  from  thirty 
to  forty  patients,  mostly  soldiers.  And  everything 
was  so  well  arranged  that  the  ofificials  said  it  was  use- 
less for  them  to  continue  their  visits  —  there  was 
nothing  for  them  to  do.  At  first  the  infirmarian 
watched  the  nurses,  but  ere  long  she  took  sole  charge. 
The  sick  could  not  say  enough  in  praise  of  their 
"  mothers,"  who  would  even  gratify  their  tastes  when 
it  could  be  done  without  prejudice  to  their  health. 
"  We  bless  God  for  the  success  of  this  Christian  work," 
writes  the  chronicler.  "  The  spirit  of  our  holy  insti- 
tute shows  itself  in  the  good  our  Sisters  do  for  souls 
while  attending  to  the  wants  of  the  body."  Like  all 
nuns  who  serve  the  sick,  they  were  consoled  by  many 
wonderful  conversions. 

It  was  on  a  fair  summer  evening,  the  air  cool  and 
balmy  after  days  of  incessant  rain,  that  the  nuns  took 
possession  of  their  new  convent,  July  13,  1734.  the 
first  built  on  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the 
oldest  in  the  United  States  by  some  seventy  years. 
Great  progress  had  been  made  in  the  education  of  the 
young  at  this  early  epoch.  Improvements  had  been 
introduced  everywhere.  In  the  culture  of  fruits  and 
vegetables,  immense  advances  had  been  made;  figs, 
grapes,  pineapples,  melons,  oranges,  sweet    and  sour, 

27 


Education   iu   Louisiana 

beans,  and  potatoes,  were  quite  common.  The  Jesuits 
cultivated  many  rare  varieties,  and  their  gardens, 
hedged  with  wax  myrtle,  now  the  site  of  the  richest 
quarter  in  New  Orleans,  were  the  wonder  and  delight 
of  the  Colony.  Madeleine  Hachard  speaks  of  the 
immense  quantities  of  fruit  sent  to  the  convent,  which 
the  nuns,  aided  by  their  pupils,  made  into  jellies  and 
preserves.  As  early  as  April  24,  1728,  she  tells  her 
father,  at  Rouen,  that  Father  Beaubois's  garden,  the 
finest  in  the  town,  is  full  of  orange  trees.  During 
Holy  Week,  the  nuns  and  their  pupils  gave  evidence 
of  progress  in  music:  "We  had  exhortations  attended 
by  nearly  two  hundred  persons.  The  Tenebrce  and 
the  Miserere  were  sung;  at  Easter  we  had  the  whole 
Mass  set  to  music,  with  quartets  admirably  exe- 
cuted. The  convents  in  France,  with  all  their  brilliancy, 
seldom  do  as  much."  The  nuns  had  twenty  boarders, 
three  parlor-boarders,  three  orphans,  and  seven  slave- 
boarders,  "  whom  we  instruct  and  prepare  for  Baptism 
and  First  Communion,"  a  large  number  of  day 
scholars,  besides  "  many  black  and  Indian  women, 
who  attend  our  seJiool  every  elay  for  two  hours!'  It 
was  usual  for  girls  to  marry  at  thirteen  or  fourteen,  but 
henceforth  no  girl  was  allowed  to  marry  without  first 
being  instructed  by  the  nuns. 

They  received  under  their  protection  the  orphans 
of  the  Frenchmen  recently  massacred  at  Natchez,  and 
some  Filles  a  la  cassette  (girls  with  a  trunk  or  casket), 
sent  hither  by  the  king  as  wives  for  respectable  colo- 
nists  and   soldiers.       These    poor    girls   had    scarcely 

28 


In  French    Colonial  Days 

tasted  their  hospitality  when  they  were  claimed  by 
men  in  need  of  helpmates.  The  marriages  made 
on  so  short  an  acquaintance  usually  turned  out  well. 
Even  girls  from  French  Houses  of  Correction  became 
excellent  wives  and  mothers,  perhaps  because  they 
were  instructed  by  the  Sisters  previous  to  receiving 
the  seventh  sacrament.  Father  Beaubois  expected 
that  the  Ursulines  would  establish  religion  through- 
out the  Colony  by  their  good  example  and  instruc- 
tions. 

Their  removal  to  their  new  monastery  was  the  oc- 
casion of  one  of  the  most  elegant  pageants  ever  de- 
vised in  the  city  of  pageants,  one  which  shows 
conclusively  that  the  Louisianians  had  taken,  as  it 
were  naturally,  such  culture  as  the  Ursulines  were  able 
to  give.  To-day,  after  all  that  has  been  said  about  the 
decorative  in  art  and  the  aesthetic  everywhere,  we 
doubt  if  anything  more  chaste,  yet  stirring  and  showy, 
could  be  devised,  great  though  our  resources  be. 
From  July  2d,  the  nuns  had  been  looking  in  vain  for 
favorable  weather.  A  downpour,  lasting  three  days, 
began  on  the  ninth,  flooding  gardens  and  making  roads 
impassable.  On  Saturday,  the  thirteenth,  just  as  they 
had  resolved  to  postpone  their  departure  indefinitely, 
the  sun  burst  from  the  cloudy  heavens,  and  in  his  brill- 
iant light  and  tropical  heat  the  waters  soon  subsided. 
The  sudden  clearing  of  the  sky  they  took  as  a  good 
omen,  and  at  5  P.  M.  all  their  bells  rang  out  to  announce 
their  intended  departure.  Bienville,  whose  third  term 
( 1 733-1 743)  had  recently  begun,  soon  appeared  in  the 

29 


Education  in  Louisiana 

convent  chapel,  where  the  nuns  knelt  for  the  last  time. 
Fathers  Beaubois  and  Petit,  and  Brother  Parisel,  Jesu- 
its ;  Fathers  Philip  and  Pierre,  Capuchins,  and  the 
most  distinguished  people  of  the  place  surrounded 
the  brilliantly  lighted  altar,  and  the  troops,  half 
French,  half  Swiss,  drew  up  on  either  side  of  the  old 
convent.* 

V 

Father  Philip  gave  benediction,  assisted  by 
Fathers  Beaubois  and  Petit.  All  left  the  chapel  pro- 
cessionally,  the  citizens  opening  the  march.  Then 
came  the  children  of  the  orphanage  and  the  day-school, 
followed  by  forty  of  the  principal  ladies  of  the  city, 
bearing  torches ;  next  twenty  young  girls  robed  and 
veiled  in  the  purest  white,  and  twelve  others,  repre- 
senting St.  Ursula  and  her  i  i,ooo  companions.  The 
boarders,  orphans,  and  day  pupils  carried  wax  tapers. 
The  young  lady  who  personated  St.  Ursula  wore  a 
costly  robe  and  a  regal  mantle  of  tissue  of  silver.  Her 
crown  glittered  with  pearls  and  diamonds,  and  a  veil 
of  the  richest  lace  fell  about  her  in  graceful  folds.  She 
bore  in  her  hand  a  heart  pierced  with  arrows  made 
with  wondrous  skill.  Fair  children  arrayed  as  angels 
surrounded  her,  and  all  waved  palm  branches  emblem- 
atic of  the  glorious  victory  won  by  the  heroic  virgin- 
martyrs  whom  they  had  the  honor  to  represent. 

*  From  the  old  convent,  the  villa  of  Bienville,  to  the  new,  the 
distance  is  less  than  a  mile,  along  Chartres  street.  The  southern 
part  of  Chartres  street,  on  which  the  new  monastery,  now  a  very 
old  one,  is  s.'tuated,  was  then  Conde  street, 

30 


In  French  Colonial  Days 

Lastly  came  the  Religious  with  lighted  candles, 
and  the  clergy  carrying  a  rich  canopy,  under  which  the 
Most  Blessed  Sacrament  was  borne  in  triumph.  Bien- 
ville and  his  staff,  the  Intendant,  Mons.  Salmon,  and 
the  whole  population  formed  their  escort.  The  sol- 
diers moved  in  single  file  on  each  side,  about  four  feet 
from  the  procession.  Hymns  were  sung  by  all,  the  ac- 
companiment of  fifes  and  drums  making  pleasing  har- 
mony ;  Brother  Parisel,  in  surplice,  acted  as  master  of 
ceremonies,  and  perfect  order  and  decorum  prevailed. 
This  moving  panorama  of  light,  color,  and  beauty 
halted  between  the  church  and  the  Place  d' Amies,  and 
defiled  gracefully  into  the  aisles,  the  troops  kneeling 
and  presenting  arms  to  do  honor  to  the  Blessed  Sac- 
rament. The  nuns  knelt  within  the  sanctuary.  Father 
Philip  placed  the  Veiled  Savior  on  the  altar,  and  the 
clergy  knelt  in  lowly  adoration.  Soldiers  robed  as 
acolytes  were  swinging  censers, whose  delicate  perfumes 
filled  the  church.  The  congregation  remained  pros- 
trate till  Father  Petit,  S.  J.,  the  orator  of  the  occasion, 
arose  to  address  them.  In  a  sermon  described  as  most 
eloquent  by  the  nun  whose  facile  pen  has  embalmed 
these  precious  details,  he  set  forth  the  necessity  and 
advantages  of  giving  young  persons  a  solid  Christian 
education.  In  glowing  words  he  congratulated  the 
nuns  on  their  labors  to  this  great  end,  so  conducive  to 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  welfare  of  the  Colony.  At 
the  close  of  this  touching  address,  the  soldiers  sang 
hymns  to  the  Blessed  Sacrament  and  St.  Ursula. 
They    then     fell    down    before     their    hidden    Lord 

31 


Education   in  Louisiatta 

with  such  demonstrations  of  reverence  that  a  specta- 
tor, not  given  to  mild  views,  feared  their  interior  dis- 
positions did  not  correspond  with  all  this  exterior 
respect. 

The  torches  and  tapers  were  not  superfluous  when 
the  procession  wound  out  of  the  church;  the  sun  was 
setting,  but  the  afterglow  remained  for  a  while,  bur- 
nishing the  lofty  trees  and  turning  the  mighty  river  into 
molten  gold.  It  drew  up  before  the  Place  d^ Amies,'*' 
and  the  bells  of  the  new  monastery  rang  out  their 
merriest  peals  as  it  moved  slowly  in  the  deepening 
twilight,  not  ceasing  till  all  had  entered  the  sacred 
edifice,  a  few  squares  distant.  "  Thus  did  we  enter 
our  new  abode,"  writes  the  chronicler,  "amid  the 
chiming  of  bells,  the  music  of  fifes  and  drums,  and  the 
singing  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  to  our  heavenly 
Father  whose  loving  Providence  has  lavished  on  us  so 
many  favors."  Benediction  was  given  a  third  time. 
As  it  was  late  and  "  insufferably  warm,"  the  Te  Dcum 
was  deferred  to  the  next  day,  Sunday.  "  The  people 
withdrew,  apparently  pleased  and  edified,  and  we  were 
delighted  to  find  ourselves  once  more  secluded  from 
the  world  and  all  it  loves  and  esteems." 

The  first  day  our  good  Religious  spent  in  their 
new  home,  the  Blessed  Sacrament  was  exposed  and  a 
solemn  Te  Dcum  sung.  In  the  evening  there  was 
benediction  and  "  we  sang  a  motet  that  won  the  ad- 
miration   of    the    distinguished    people    who    assisted 

*  Place  d'' Amies,  a  field  before  the  church,  called,  in  Spanish 
colonial  times,  \\\e  plaza,  now  Jackson  Square. 

32 


In  French  Colonial  Days 

at  these  ceremonies.  We  were  really  charmed  with 
our  new  house,"  continued  our  anonymous  chron- 
icler; "much  is  yet  to  be  done,  but  the  joy  of 
being  separated  from  the  world  outweighs  all  incon- 
veniences." 

Father  Dagobert,  who  came  to  New  Orleans  in 
1723,  lived  to  witness  a  more  stirring  and  pompous 
procession.  Thirty-five  years  later,  August  18,  1769, 
he  watched  the  superb  battalions  and  fusileros  of 
Don  Alexandro  O'Reilly  crossing  the  plaza  to  the 
military  Mass  and  Te  Dciini,  which  were  to  celebrate 
the  transfer  of  Louisiana  to  Spain.  The  hoarse  roar- 
ing of  cannon  mingled  with  the  mellow  tones  of  all 
the  bells  in  the  town  as  they  rang  out  a  joyous  welcome 
to  the  hero  of  the  day.  O'Reilly,  who  worthily  repre- 
sented the  potent  majesty  of  Spain,  attended  by  a 
staff  of  gorgeously  accoutred  men,  preceded  by  officers 
bearing  massive  silver  maces,  moved  forward  to  the 
music  of  hundreds  of  instruments.  When  they  halted 
to  be  ofificially  welcomed  by  the  representatives  of  the 
Church,  the  prolonged  shouts  which  rent  the  air,  Viva 
el  Rey,  were  heard  in  the  cloisters  of  St.  Ursula. 
The  Friar  received  His  Excellency  at  the  church-door, 
welcomed  him  with  every  demonstration  of  respect, 
and  with  utmost  enthusiasm  promised  fidelity  to  the 
crown  of  Spain  for  his  brethren  and  the  people.  He 
then  blessed  the  Spanish  colors,  which  ascended  the 
flag-staff  when  the  white  banner  was  lowered  When 
that  redoubtable  chieftain  bent  his  pale  intellectual 
countenance,  radiant  with  devotion,  and  knelt  with 
3  33 


Education   in  Louisiana 

forehead  to  the  earth  at  the  Tc  ergo  qiicesumus,  per- 
haps he  thought  no  scene  could  be  grander  or  more 
thriUing  than  that  of  which  he  formed  the  central 
figure.  Or,  it  may  be,  that,  like  another  warrior  of  the 
same  race,  his  triumphs  had  a  tinge  of  bitterness 
because  they  were  not  for  the  land  of  his  birth 
and  his  love.  But  I  fancy  Father  Dagobert's  mind 
reverted  to  the  procession  of  1734,  and  that,  how- 
ever thrilled  and  overawed  by  the  warlike  grandees 
of  Spain  and  the  princely  Irishman  who  commanded 
them,  his  heart  preferred  the  earlier  and  lovelier 
pageant. 

The  whole  scene  of  July  13,  1734,  intensely  dra- 
matic as  it  was,  passes  before  our  mind's  eye  in  its 
quaint  and  gorgeous  beauty.  Civilians  in  the  graceful 
costume  of  that  era,  officials  in  their  showy  robes  of 
office,  matrons  in  grand  toilets  of  the  rich  gold- 
striped  stuffs  that  surprised  Madeleine  Hachard  on 
her  first  introduction  to  the  women  of  the  Colony  — 
soldiers  in  gaudy  uniforms,  veterans  wearing  medals  of 
gallantry  won  on  many  a  field  in  Europe;  dignitaries 
with  black  servants  in  bright  liveries ;  Bienville  at- 
tended by  a  splendid  staff;  children  in  purest  white 
strewing  flowers  before  the  Blessed  Sacrament;  young 
girls  richly  appareled;  "St.  Ursula"  in  sparkling 
diadem  and  royal  robes  waving  the  graceful  palmetto 
of  the  country.  Dark-robed  nuns,  in  flowing  veils  and 
mantles,  led  by  Sister  Hachard,  whose  clever  pen  has 
left  such  vivid  pictures  of  early  colonial  days  — 
acolytes  in  bright  cassocks  and  snow-white  surplices, 

34 


Ill  French    Colonial  Days 

swinging  silver  thuribles  —  bearded  Franciscans  in  the 
brown  habits  of  their  Order,  Jesuits  in  simple  soutanes, 
the  officiating  clergy  in  glittering  vestments — the  rich 
canopy  borne  aloft,  soldiers  in  Indian  file,  keeping  step 
as  a  guard  of  honor,  between  whose  lines  passed  the 
hidden  God.  The  rich,  sonorous  voices  of  the  men, 
the  clear,  sweet  treble  of  the  women  and  children,  the 
martial  music  of  the  soldiery ;  the  eager-eyed  blacks 
and  the  swarthy  Indians  who  see  in  this  old-world 
grandeur  a  picture  of  heaven,  and  the  warm  beams  of 
the  sun  gilding  the  whole;  the  giant  trees  whose 
branches  bend  low  as  if  in  adoration  of  the  Veiled 
Presence  beneath  the  canopy,  the  red  sunbeams  glitter- 
ing through  the  foliage  and  forming  halos  over  St. 
Ursula  and  her  Virgin  Companions;  the  cardinal 
birds  like  tufts  of  fire  in  the  trees,  the  mocking 
birds  making  sweet  melody  in  their  hiding  places; 
the  clouds  of  incense  ascending  heavenward — all 
this  must  have  equaled  in  beauty  and  variety  any 
other  religious  display  ever  devised,  and  speaks  vol- 
umes for  the  culture  of  Louisiana  in  French  Colonial 
days, 

VI 

The  Ursulines  seem  to  have  been  particularly 
successful  in  developing  and  cultivating  the  musical 
tastes  of  their  pupils.  The  women,  the  children,  and 
the  soldiers  could,  as  we  have  seen,  unite  with  the 
clergy  and  the  Sisters  in  singing  and  moving  forward 
to  the  accompaniment    of   military  music;    and  it  is 

3.S 


Education  in  Louisiana 

always  trying  to  sing  while  marching,  however  slowly. 
It  would  be  interesting  to  see  the  scores  from  which 
they  sang  and  to  which  they  marched.  Perhaps  they 
lie  unnoticed  in  some  secret  drawer  of  the  Ursuline 
library.  This  display  shows  that  congregational 
singing  is  not  an  innovation  in  New  Orleans;  it  evi- 
dently entered  largely  into  the  worship  of  the  early 
settlers. 

The  nuns  were  able  to  afford  increased  educational 
facilities  to  their  pupils  in  their  new  home.  The  good 
wrought  by  them  increased  every  day,  and  parents 
were  influenced  through  their  pupils.  The  blacks,  then 
very  few,  and  the  Indians,  who  came  and  went  at  will, 
were  tenderly  cherished.  Mother  Melotte,  who  suc- 
ceeded Mother  Tranchepain,  was  a  woman  of  great 
energy  and  did  much  to  improve  and  beautify  the  mon- 
astery, and  fit  it  for  its  many  purposes.  Laundry,  store- 
room, bakery,  a  small  parlor,  and  a  room  for  the  tour- 
riere,  still  standing,were  added  in  quick  succession.  The 
day  scholars  increasing,  new  school-rooms  followed. 
The  convent  was  built  to  stand  sieges — attacks  from 
the  Indians  or  the  English  were  almost  always  ex- 
pected. And,  as  it  was  incongruous  that  such  a  struc- 
ture should  be  surrounded  by  a  fence  of  stakes,  the 
good  Mother,  at  a  cost  of  6,000  francs,  built  a  brick 
wall  around  the  whole  enclosure,  part  of  which  still 
stands.  All  this  was  done  at  the  expense  of  the  nuns, 
who  were  surprised  that  the  sum  charged  to  the  building 
accounts,  I00,000  francs,  did  not  supply  all  the  offices 
and    include  a  hospital.      Those  who  know  the  old 

36 


Iti    French    Colonial  Days 

monastery  will  be  interested  to  hear  that  the  ground- 
floor  had  a  small  chapel,  two  parlors,  a  room  for  the 
Mother  Superior,  refectories  for  the  sisters  and  the 
boarders,  community  rooms,  kitchen,  scullery,  and 
pantry.  On  the  next  floor  (first  in  English,  second  in 
French)  were  dormitory,  infirmary,  sacristy,  linen  room, 
wardrobe.  The  orphans  occupied  part  of  the  upper 
story;  the  rest  was  used  as  an  instruction  room  for  the 
colored  women.  "  We  succeeded  in  persuading  the 
gentlemen  of  the  Indian  Company,"  writes  one  of  the 
nuns,  "  to  erect  a  separate  building  for  the  sick."  To 
this  the  patients  were  removed,  August  20,  1734. 
It  was  behind  the  convent,  facing  Arsenal  street, 
which  immediately  changed  its  name  to  Hospital 
street.  The  first  infirmarian,  Sister  M.  Xavier,  before 
assuming  the  charge,  wished  to  see  how  the  lay  nurses 
managed  the  sick.  "  But  her  apprenticeship  was  short, 
for  charity  compelled  her  to  take  sole  charge  of  them." 
Heretofore,  only  patients  in  danger  of  death  had  been 
received,  but  the  new  building  was  spacious  enough 
to  accommodate  all  the  sick.  S'uch  were  the  humble 
beginnings  of  the  splendid  Charity  Hospital,  which  is 
not  the  least  of  the  glories  of  New  Orleans. 


VH 

The  educational  advantages  given  by  the  Ursu- 
lines  to  girls  of  every  class  may  perhaps  be  the  cause 
why  the  Creole  women  of  Louisiana  have  been  re- 
garded   by    many    as    morally,    religiously,   and    even 

37 


45i?5S 


Educatio)i   in  Louisiatia 

intellectually  superior  to  the  Creole  men.  But  it  was 
not  Bienville's  fault  that  there  was  no  high  school  or 
university  for  boys.  Rich  parents  sent  their  sons  to 
Europe,  and  the  benefits  of  such  a  course  were  not  al- 
ways commensurate  with  its  risks  and  expenses.  The 
truly  enlightened  founder  of  the  city  sought  the  best 
teachers  for  the  boys,  as  he  had  done  for  the  girls.  He 
wrote  to  the  French  Government,  in  1742: 

"  It  is  long  since  the  inhabitants  of  Louisiana  made 
representations  on  the  necessity  of  having  a  college 
for  the  education  of  their  sons.  Convinced  of  the 
advantages  of  such  an  institution,  they  wished  the  Jes- 
uits to  undertake  its  creation  and  management.  It  is 
essential  that  there  be  one  at  least  for  the  study  ot 
classics,  geometry,  geography,  pilotage,  etc.  It  is  too 
evidently  demonstrated  to  parents  how  utterly  worth- 
less children  turn  out  who  are  reared  in  idleness  and 
luxury,  and  how  ruinously  expensive  it  is  to  send  chil- 
dren to  France  to  be  educated.  Moreover,  it  is  to  be 
feared  that  Creoles  educated  abroad  will  imbibe  a  dis- 
like for  their  native  country  and  come  back  only  to  re- 
ceive and  convert  into  cash  the  property  left  by  their 
parents." 

The  Intendant,  Salmon,  made  this  petition  jointly 
with  the  Governor,  but  it  was  set  aside  as  premature. 
Bienville  left  the  Colony  for  France,  May  10,  1743, 
never  to  return.  As  he  had  always  labored  for  the 
profit  of  Louisiana,  it  may  well  be  believed   that  he 

38 


In  French    Colonial  Days 

used  his  influence  in  Paris  to  advance  the  project  he 
had  so  much  at  heart.  But  the  times  were  unfavor- 
able, and  every  year  increased  the  difficulties  of  its 
execution. 

The  sun  of  St.  Ignatius  was  already  beginning  to 
set.  The  suppression  of  his  children  throughout  the 
French  dominions  loomed  up  in  the  distance,  and 
years  of  anxiety  and  persecution  were  preparing  minds 
for  that  final  issue.  So  far  from  being  able  to  found 
another  establishment  in  New  Orleans,  they  were  soon 
to  be  driven  from  a  Colony  in  which  they  had  labored 
with  signal  success  from  its  earliest  days.  The  Jesuit 
College,  for  which  Governor  Bienville  asked,  was  not 
founded  till  the  next  century.  The  formal  order  for 
the  suppression  of  the  Jesuits  was  issued  by  the 
French  Government  in  1764,  and  their  brethren  in 
Spain  and  Naples  shared  the  same  fate.  The  planta- 
tion which  their  labors  had  wrung  from  marsh  and 
swamp  and  changed  into  a  Garden  of  Eden  was  con- 
fiscated by  an  ungrateful  government  to  which  their 
property  in  Louisiana  brought  $180,000,  an  enor- 
mous sum  for  the  time.  They  had  introduced 
sugar-cane,  which  later  became  a  fruitful  source*  of 
wealth  to  Louisiana,  "  the  sugar-bowl  of  the  United 
States."  By  the  lamentable  exodus  of  so  many  zeal- 
ous   priests,    the    nuns  lost  their    directors   and   best 

*  In  1882  the  Louisiana  sugar-crop  netted  340,000,000  pounds. 
In  that  year  70,000,000  pounds  were  lost  by  the  overflow  of  the 
Mississippi.  The  largest  recorded  sugar-crop  before  the  war  was 
(in  1858)  500,000,000  pounds,  and  30,000,000  gallons  of  molasses. 

39 


Education  in   Louisiana 

friends,  and  education  in  Louisiana  its  most  influen- 
tial and  cultured  patrons.  Madeleine  Hachard  was 
spared  this  great  sorrow.  She  died  in  1762,  after 
having  faithfully  taught  the  youth  of  the  Colony 
for  thirty-five  years.  The  letters  of  this  accomplished 
woman  show  her  to  have  been  full  of  high  and  gener- 
ous sentiments,  and  ardently  devoted  to  her  holy 
vocation. 

The  administration  of  the  generous  and  hospitable 
successor  of  Bienville,  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  the 
Grand  Marquis,  as  he  was  styled,  was  a  period  of  un- 
usual brilliancy  (i 743-1 753),  though  not  without  its 
disturbances.  He  was  succeeded  by  Kerlerec,  a  cap- 
tain in  the  French  Navy.  D'Abbadie,  who  followed, 
died  in  office  in  1765.  This  year  was  signalized  by  the 
arrival  of  650  Acadians,  who,  after  being  hospitably  re- 
ceived in  New  Orleans,  were  sent  to  Opelousas  and 
Attakapas,  where  their  descendants  remain  to  this 
day.  By  a  secret  Treaty  of  Cession,  Louisiana  was 
given  over  to  Spain,  February  10,  1762.  But  Aubry, 
the  last  French  governor,  remained  in  the  Colony  till 
he  delivered  it  officially  to  O'Reilly,  in  1769. 

The  despatches  of  the  later  French  governors  and 
other  officials  prove  the  Colony  to  have  been  in  a 
desperate  condition.  De  Bassac  tells  the  home  gov- 
ernment that  "  drunkenness,*  brawls,  and  duels, 
destroyed  half  the  population."  And  D'Abbadie 
complains  that  the  "  facility  offered  by  the  country  to 

*  The  drunkenness  resulted  from  the  immoderate  use  of  tafia, 
a  kind  of  bad  whisky  made  from  the  sugar-cane. 

40 


In  French    Colonial  Days 

live  on  its  natural  productions  has  created  habits  of 
laziness,"  that  the  "  whole  population  is  stupefied  by 
the  vice  of  drunkenness,"  and  that  "  Louisiana  is  a 
chaos  of  iniquity  and  disorder."  Kerlerec,  from  his 
cell  in  the  Bastile,  "  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart 
pities  "  the  Spanish  Governor,  Ulloa,  for  being  sent  to 
such  a  country.  All  this  had  a  baleful  influence  on 
education.  Those  devoted  to  education,  above  all 
others,  require  peace  of  mind  if  they  would  make  their 
work  a  success.  The  Ursuline  Religious  were  always 
treated  with  great  deference  in  the  old  colonial  days. 
But  it  was  difficult  for  teachers  or  pupils  to  attend 
well  to  school  duties  while  the  City  Fathers  were  hold- 
ing conventions,  sending  out  deputations,  and  heading 
the  armed  squads  that  paraded  the  streets.  Spain, 
having  already  too  many  colonies,>was  slow  to  take 
possession  of  the  gift  thrust  upon  her  by  the  degener- 
ate Louis  XV.,  through  his  infidel  minister,  Choiseul, 
who  had  already  lost  Canada  to  France.  The  most 
excited  condition  of  public  feeling  prevailed.  Official 
reports  state  that  anarchy  was  becoming  almost  uni- 
versal. The  people  besought  the  king  not  to  separate 
them  from  France.  The  aged  Bienville  made  the 
same  petition  with  tears,  and,  it  is  said,  died  of  grief 
when  Choiseul  refused  to  grant  it.  The  disturbances 
of  the  quasi-interregnum  affected  the  cause  of  educa- 
tion most  unfavorably.  From  1760  to  1770  was  a 
period  of  bitter  agitation  and  controversy.  The  ante- 
cedents and  consequents  of  the  transfer  to  Spain  dis- 
turbed the  country  socially  and  religiously  as  well  as 

41 


Education  in  Louisiana 

politically,  and  nowhere  was  the  change  more  keenly 
felt  than  within  the  walls  of  the  Ursuline  Convent. 
The  nuns,  mostly  French  by  birth  and  attached  to 
their  country  and  her  language,  were  given  to  under- 
stand that  Spanish  was  to  be  henceforth  the  chief 
language  of  their  schools.  The  Spanish  domination  * 
brought  them  Spanish  subjects,  for  whom  they  seem 
to  have  had  about  as  much  welcome  as  the  French 
Friars  for  their  Spanish  brethern.  Even  the  In- 
dians complained  of  being  "  handed  from  one  white 
chief  to  another  like  so  many  head  of  cattle." 

Difificulties  between  clergy  of  different  orders, 
and  between  French  and  Spanish  clergy  of  the 
same  order,  and  later,  between  clergy  and  their 
bishops,  had  a  deleterious  effect  on  education.  The 
first  Spanish  Governor,  Don  Antonio  Ulloa,  a  scholar 
of  European  reputation,  would  doubtless  have  done 
much  for  education,  had  the  people  allowed  him.  But 
they  arose  in  arms  against  him,  and  forced  him  to 
leave  the  country.  "  It  is  well  known,"  wrote  the 
Spanish  Minister,  Grimaldi,  regarding  Ulloa's  expul- 
sion, "  that  the  loss  of  great  interest  is  looked  upon  in 
Spain  with  indifference,  but  not  so  as  regards  insults 
or  contumelies."  Charles  III.  decided  to  punish  the 
insult  offered  to  the  Spanish  crown,  and  enforce  his 
authority.  On  August  i8,  1769,  Don  Alexandro 
O'Reilly,  an  ofificer  of  the  highest  rank  in  the  armies 

*  Four  Spanish  ladies  from  Havana  took  the  veil  in  the  Ursu- 
line Convent,  New  Orleans,  1772.  A  church  was  built  for  the  nuns 
at  the  expense  of  the  King  of  Spain  about  the  same  time 

42 


1)1    French    Colonial  Days 

of  Spain,  honored  with  the  royal  friendship  and  confi- 
dence, appeared  before  the  town  with  twenty-four 
sail  and  2,600  picked  men,  the  flower  of  the  Spanish 
troops.  The  mere  sight  of  this  armament,  or  rather 
the  news  of  its  approach,  quelled  the  insurrection. 
Twelve  ring-leaders  were  tried  for  high  treason  and 
found  guilty.  Their  defense  was  that  Ulloa,  whom 
they  had  driven  out,  had  not  shown  his  credentials; 
that  they  had  not  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance;  and 
that  Spain  had  not  formally  taken  possession.  But  it 
was  proved  that  the  Spanish  flag  had  for  years  been 
floating  at  every  post  from  the  Balize  to  Illinois ;  that 
some  of  the  accused  had  held  their  commissions  from 
the  King  of  Spain,  and  drew  salaries  from  him  while 
exciting  revolt  against  him.  Six  were  sentenced  to 
death,  one  of  whom  died  in  prison,  and  six  were  ban- 
ished. 

Though  O'Reilly*  has  been  blamed  by  a  few  for 
suffering  the  law  to  take  its  course,  yet,  at  the  time, 
he  was  judged  extremely  merciful.  His  power  was 
absolute ;  yet  only  a  few  of  the  leaders  were  punished, 
and  a  full,  unconditional  pardon  was  granted  to  the 
rest,  i.  e.,  almost  all  the  men  in  the  colony.  "  I  have 
the  honor,"  wrote  Aubry  to  the  French  Prime  Minis- 
ter, "  of  sending  a  list  of  the  small  number  whom  the 

*  France  gave  Louisiana  to  Spain  lest  the  English  should 
seize  it.  Had  an  English  governor  come  under  the  same  circum- 
stances as  O'Reilly,  what  a  butchery  there  would  have  been  of  the 
insurrectionists ! 

43 


Education   iv  Louisiana 

General  (O'Reilly)  was  indispensably  obliged  to  have 
arrested.  This  proves  his  generosity  and  kindness  of 
heart,  considering  there  are  many  others  whose 
criminal  conduct  would  have  justified  their  being 
treated  in  the  same  manner."  Elsewhere  he  expresses 
astonishment  that  "  the  mere  presence  of  one  individ- 
ual should  have  restored  good  order  and  tranquillity." 
And  the  Council  of  the  Indies  unanimously  declared 
that  "all  the  official  acts  of  Count  O'Reilly  merited 
their  most  decided  approbation,  and  were  striking 
proofs  of  his  extraordinary  genius."  With  great  liber- 
ality and  profound  policy,  O'Reilly  placed  men  of 
French  birth  or  descent  in  all  the  chief  offices  of 
the  State,  *  and  sustained  the  French  clergy  in  their 
charges. 

It  w^as  at  3  P.M.  on  October  25,  1769,  that  the 
five  men  who  were  to  die  were  brought  to  the  place  of 
execution.  Their  sentence  was  read  to  them  in  Span- 
ish, and  repeated  in  French  by  John  Kelly  and  John 
Garic,  who  had  acted  as  interpreters  at  the  trial.  The 
firing  of  a  platoon  of  grenadiers,  distinctly  heard  by 
the  terror-stricken  Ursulines,  ended  their  lives  in  a 
moment.     It  is  a  great  pity  that  so  humane  a  ruler  as 

*  A  course  diametrically  opposite  has  always  been  pursued  by 
the  English  in  Ireland.  Hence,  while  the  Louisianians  became 
thoroughly  reconciled  to  the  Spanish  Domination,  which  was 
really  a  despotism  very  mildly  administered,  and  for  years  after 
the  American  ascendancy  would  gladly  have  brought  back  the 
golden  days  of  Spanish  Colonial  rule,  the  Irish  have  never  been 
"  satisfied  with  the  English  Government. 

44 


In  French    Colonial  Days 

O'Reilly  should  have  felt  himself  unable  to  restore 
order  and  at  the  same  time  spare  the  lives  of  these 
men  to  whom  the  law  had  decreed  death.  The  widow* 
of  the  condemned  who  died  in  prison,  Villere,  was  the 
granddaughter  of  Delachaise,  the  early  benefactor  of 
the  nuns.  When  peace  was  restored,  education  flour- 
ished once  more.  O'Reilly  soon  brought  order  out  of 
chaos.  His  romantic  story  and  his  wise  and  vigorous 
administration  place  him  high  among  the  small  num- 
ber born  to  rule.  A  ripe  scholar,  versed  in  the  litera- 
ture of  many  nations,  he  warmly  patronized  the 
existing  schools,  especially  those  of  the  Ursulines. 
New  schools  were  established  and  some  of  the  most 
learned  professors  of  the  universities  of  Spain  came  to 
New  Orleans  to  preside  over  them.  O'Reilly,  who 
could  have  traveled  from  his  native  Meath  to  Moscow 
without  an  interpreter,  pleased  the  people  by  address- 
ing them  in  French,  though  he  preferred  the  stately 
Castilian,  which  he  spoke  and  wrote  with  classic  purity 
of  diction,  t     The  officers  associated  with  him  in  the 

*  Madame  Villere's  brother,  M.  Delachaise,  and  the  chief  Cre- 
oles and  Frenchmen  of  the  colony  immediately  took  office  under 
O'Reilly,  which  would  seem  to  show  that  they  regarded  the  exe- 
cution of  the  convicted  men  as  a  regrettable  act  of  justice,  and  that 
O'Reilly's  instructions  from  the  king  left  him  no  choice  in  the 
matter.  When  O'Reilly  wished  to  raise  in  the  colony  "  The  Regi- 
ment of  Louisiana,"  the  number  of  applicants  exceeded  the  num- 
ber to  which  he  limited  this  corps. 

t  Hon.  Charles  Gayarre,  great-grandson  of  O'Reilly's  contador, 
showed  the  writer  several  autograph  letters  of  this  celebrated 
Irishman, 

45 


Education  m  Louisiana 

government  were  all  scholars  of  distinction,  Gayarre, 
Navarro,  and  Loyola.  The  last  claimed  kindred 
with  St.  Ignatius,  and  was,  like  him,  a  model  of 
knightly  courtesy,  a  poet,  and  a  valiant  soldier  of 
the  cross.  Don  Joseph  Loyola  died  in  New  Orleans 
in  1770. 

Perhaps  in  succoring  the  Ursulines,  to  whom  he 
was  a  generous  benefactor,  the  poetic  mind  of  O'Reilly 
and  his  truly  Catholic  heart  wandered  to  a  beauteous 
green  isle,  framed  in  sea-foam  and  draped  with  clouds, 
in  which  the  song  of  cloistered  virgins  then  seemed 
hushed  forever.  His  entrance  into  New  Orleans  was 
a  poem  in  itself,  which  must  have  recalled  to  his  Cel- 
tic imagination  the  bare-armed  Feni,  the  Ossianic 
heroes  who  haunt  the  shadowy  past,  and  his  ancestors 
in  prehistoric  Erin  —  dark-haired  warriors  wielding 
ponderous  battle-axes,  and  white-robed  bards  harping 
upon  their  harps  of  burnished  gold.  For  this  princely 
ruler  was  almost  the  last  high  priest  of  vanishing  chiv- 
alry. In  the  oath  of  ofifice  he  administered  to  his  sub- 
ordinates is  a  promise  to  defend  the  Immaculate  Con- 
ception of  Our  Lady,  and  never  to  take  any  fee  from 
the  poor.* 

*  Here  is  another  of  O'Reilly's  regulations  :  "  The  governor, 
with  the  Alcaldes,  the  Alguazil  Mayor,  and  the  escribano,  shall 
yearly,  on  the  eves  of  Christmas,  Easter,  and  Whitsunday,  make 
a  general  visitation  of  the  prisons.  .  .  .  They  shall  release 
those  who  have  been  arrested  for  criminal  causes  of  small  impor- 
tance, or  for  debts,  when  such  debtors  are  known  to  be  insolvent, 

46 


/;/   FroicJi    Colo)/iaI  Days 

Although  the  wants  of  the  Ursulines  were  fully 
supplied,  the  king  of  Spain,  perhaps  on  the  representa- 
tion of  His  Excellency,  Governor  O'Reilly,  insisted  on 
paying  the  convent  a  pension  for  the  support  of  two 
of  the  nuns,  probably  those  who  taught  the  free  school. 
Meanwhile  the  English  language,  universal  in  Louisi- 
ana to-day,  was  slowly  creeping  in ;  it  was  largely 
spoken  in  Mobile,  Pensacola,  and  Baton  Rouge.  From 
the  earliest  days  the  English  had  traded  with  the  set- 
tlers on  both  sides  of  the  river.  They  kept  up  the 
slave  trade,  and  supplied  planters  with  Africans  of 
every  tribe.  Bienville  himself  had  met  them  on  the 
Mississippi  when  the  village  of  Tchoutchouma  occu- 
pied the  site  of  New  Orleans,  and  they  were  among 
the  earliest  palefaces  the  red  men  saw.  Aubry,  the 
last  French  governor,  corresponded  in  English  with 
the  governors  of  other  provinces.  In  1769  O'Reilly 
wrote:  "  I  drove  off  all  the  English  traders  and  other 
individuals  of  that  nation,  whom  I  found  in  the  town 
(New  Orleans),  and  I  shall  admit  none  of  theirvessels." 
But  despite  the  Spanish  ascendancy  and  the  gradual 
introduction  of  English,  French  continued  to  be  the 
favorite  language  of  the  Ursuline  nuns,  and  was 
taught  to  all  their  pupils,  even  after  the  city  became 
Nueva-Or  leans. 

It  does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  this  article  to 
follow  the  early  teachers  of  Louisiana  through  the  old 

or  shall  allow  them  a  sufficient  term  for  the  payment   of  their 
creditors." 

47 


Education  in  Louisiana 

Spanish  colonial  times  or  the  first  years  of  American 
domination.  We  will,  therefore,  conclude  with  a 
glance  at  the  FIRST  GiRLS'  SCHOOL  erected  in  Louisi- 
ana, still,  battered  and  decayed  as  it  is,  one  of  the 
largest  and  strongest  houses  in  the  State.  The  de- 
vouring tooth  of  time  has  eaten  into  the  blue-gray 
stucco  which  once  covered  its  massive  walls,  but  not  a 
vestige  of  its  old  aspect  has  departed.  Dozens  of 
windows,  with  small  panes  of  greenish  glass,  look  out 
on  its  cool  gardens.  A  queer  shrine  flanks  the  end  of 
the  centre  walk.  A  patch  of  sugar  cane,  a  few  flowers 
that  seem  to  have  been  blooming  since  the  last  cen- 
tury, and  some  antiquated  fruit  trees,  bring  the  past 
vividly  before  the  spectator.  Once  this  garden 
stretched  to  the  Mississippi,  but  now  huge  rows  of 
ugly  houses  shut  out  the  river  view.  Tradition  points 
out  where  the  nuns  were  buried  ;  but  all  were  removed 
to  the  new  monastery  grounds  in  1824.  The  colored 
servants  who  were  interred  in  front  of  the  convent 
were  never  disturbed.  One  would  not  like  to  eat  the 
fruit  of  these  gardens.  For  students  have  told  their 
friends  in  mysterious  whispers  of  a  nun  who  sleeps 
beneath  a  certain  cherry  tree  — she  would  not  leave  her 
ancient  haunts  ;  and  of  a  supernatural  spectre,  "  a  ghost 
all  in  white,"  who  roams  about  the  grassy  walks,  and 
wails  in  the  gloomy  corridors,  on  certain  high  festivals. 
Nor  would  it  surprise  one  who  rambles  through  this  old 
place  to  meet  some  spirit-nun  on  the  broad,  creaking 
staircase,  with  the  thin  iron  balustrades,  or  in  the  large 

48 


In  French    Colonial  Days 

deserted  rooms  that  once  resounded  with  sweet  chil- 
dren's voices,  and  the  hymns  that  charmed  the  simple 
Creoles  of  old  colonial  days. 

We  ascended  the  top  story,  once  used  as  an  instruc- 
tion room  for  blacks.  Imagination  peoples  it  in  a 
moment.  There  is  the  desk  at  which  sat  the  brave 
and  gentle  teachers  who  had  crossed  the  seas  to  bring 
these  poor  creatures  to  God.  Dusky  maidens  and 
matrons  come  hither  in  crowds  for  advice,  instruction, 
and  consolation;  their  faces  tell  their  tribe,  —  the 
comely  Yoloff,  the  treacherous  Congo,  the  fierce  Man- 
dingo,  the  quarrelsome  Banbarra,  the  intelligent 
Foulah, —  all  wearing  the  picturesque  turbans  of  their 
full  dress.  And  hither,  too,  crowd  the  Indian  women, 
with  a  world  of  sorrow  in  their  long,  dark  eyes.  We 
descend;  look  through  the  various  offices  and  people 
them  with  the  gentle  Sisters  we  know  so  well.  We 
gaze  on  the  clumsy  gate  with  its  small  grille  and 
quaint  iron  knocker,  and  think  of  some  who  passed 
through  these  faded  portals.  The  early  Jesuits  and 
Franciscans,  old  Father  Bienville,  honest  Perier  and 
his  pious  wife.  See  how  they  crowd  up  from  the 
dreamy  past,  not  shadowy  creatures  from  the  twilight 
regions  of  romance,  but  beings  real  and  human.  The 
grand  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil  in  gilded  casque  and 
heron  plume,  the  pensive  Filles  a  la  cassette,  the  weep- 
ing Acadians,  the  chivalrous  descendant  of  MacCarthy 
More,  the  scholarly  Ulloa  —  the  austere  countenance 
of  the  princely  O'Reilly,  the  dashing  Galvez,  the 
4  49 


Education   in  JLouisiana 

lordly  O'Farrell,  the  intellectual  face  and  piercing 
black  eyes  of  Penalvert, —  that  group  of  princes  in  the 
centre  of  which  is  the  pear-shaped  head*  of  Louis  Phil- 
ippe—  the  spare  physiognomy  of  Andrew  Jackson, 
lean  and  haggard  from  midnight  vigils,  but  illumined 
and  glorified  by  his  eagle  eye  —  how  they  all  crowd 
upon  the  memory  in  this  hallowed  spot,  so  full  of  holy 
and  historic  associations.  The  prelates  of  New  Or- 
leans, except  Bishop  Penalvert,  have  always  been 
guests  of  the  Ursulines,  who  have  given  them  free  use 
of  this  ancient  mansion.  But  we,  for  one,  could  not 
carry  inside  these  old  walls  the  habits  and  sentiments 
of  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The 
energy  necessary  to  live  and  go  forward  to-day  would 
ooze  out  through  our  finger-tips.  We  should  be  for- 
ever wandering  in  the  shadowy  past,  dreaming  dreams 
and  seeing  visions.  The  spirits  conjured  up  by  imagi- 
nation would  be  more  pleasant  to  us  than  the  stern 
realities  of  everyday  life.  Years  would  seem  but  as 
days  when  spent  in  sweet  dalliance  with  many  a  fair 
wraith  ascending  from  the  old  graves  under  the  quiv- 
ering trees,  eluding  our  grasp  and  melting,  in  the  calm 
sweet  hours  of  even,  into  the  dreamy  moonlight.  And, 
verily,  to  a  poetic  temperament,  loving  to  revel  in 
historic  lore,  the  spectre-nun  of  the  past  wailing  in  the 
forsaken  halls  of  the  ancient  monastery,  yea,  even  the 
"ghost   all    in   white,"   rising    from    her  green   couch 

*The  future  King  of  the  French  and  his  two  brothers  were  in 
New  Orleans  in  1798. 

50 


/;/    Spai/isk    Colonial  Days 

under  the  cherry  tree,  would  be  a  more  pleasing  com- 
panion than  the  tiresome  votary  of  fashion,  or  the 
soulless  worshiper  of  wealth,   in  which   our  age  is  so 

fertile. 

VIII 

On  the  tenth  of  February,  1763,  Louisiana,  by 
a  Treaty  of  Cession,  passed  under  the  rule  of  Spain  — 
on  paper.  Spain,  already  overburdened  with  col- 
onies, was  not  eager  to  invade  her  new  possessions, 
and  Louisiana  was  far  from  being  anxious  to  de- 
liver herself  up  to  her  new  master.  In  October, 
1764,  the  first  official  announcement  of  the  transfer 
came  to  New  Orleans  in  a  letter  from  Louis  XV.  to 
Governor  Abbadie.  But  to  the  inhabitants,  the  royal 
message  was  but  a  diplomatic  figure  of  speech.  At 
first  they  did  not  notice  it.  When  certain  signs  told 
them  it  was  a  serious  business,  they  met  in  conven- 
tion and  appealed  to  the  king  not  to  separate  them 
from  the  mother-country.  Spain  gave  them  ample 
time  to  ingratiate  themselves  into  the  favor  of  Louis 
le  bic7i  aime.  They  dispatched  the  richest  merchant 
in  the  colony  to  lay  their  petitions  at  the  feet  of  the 
"  well-beloved "  monarch.  Bienville,  then  in  his 
eighty-sixth  year,  threw  his  influence,  which  should 
have  been  great,  into  the  scale  in  their  favor.  But 
their  passionate  pleadings  fell  upon  dull,  cold  ears, 
and  Louis,  through  his  infidel  minister,  Choiseul,  re- 
fused to  keepLouisiana. 

Meanwhile,  Spain  appeared  to  have  forgotten  all 
about  her   new   acquisition.      For  almost  a  year  no 

51 


Education  in  Louisiana 

governor  was  appointed.  "  Never  do  to-day  what  you 
can  safely  put  off  till  to-morrow,"  is  a  Spanish  proverb 
which  relieves  from  all  danger  of  impetuosity  the 
wise,  slow  people  who  put  it  into  practice.  When 
Don  Antonio  Ulloa,  was  commissioned  as  governor, 
he  loitered  in  Havana  for  nearly  another  year.  The 
people  believed  the  cession  a  sham  instrument.  They 
were  looking  for  counter-orders,  when,  lo  !  Spain,  after 
being  for  years  apathetic  in  the  one-sided  quarrel,  de- 
termined to  settle  it.  On  the  fifth  of  March  the 
dilatory  Ulloa  appeared  in  the  streets  of  the  city  with 
two  companies  of  infantry.  Needless  to  say,  he  was 
coldly  received.  Ulloa,  then  in  his  fifty-first  year, 
was  one  of  the  finest  scholars  in  the  world.  He  was 
most  desirous  of  conciliating  the  new  subjects  of 
Spain  ;  but  as  they  would  not  be  conciliated,  he  left 
them  to  get  over  their  ill-temper  as  best  they  could, 
and  pitched  his  tent  among  the  reed  prairies  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river.  Here,  in  a  crazy  palace  of  shak- 
ing piles,  he  received  the  beautiful  Marchioness 
d'Abrado,  who  came  from  Peru  to  become  his  bride, 
the  parties  having  engaged  themselves  when  Don  An- 
tonio traveled  in  South  America  in  the  interest  of 
science.  In  March,  1767,  when  the  banks  were  at  the 
height  of  their  beauty,  the  trees  robed  in  pale  green, 
and  many  of  them  starred  with  orange  blossoms,  the 
newly-wedded  pair  came  up  the  river  to  New  Orleans. 
Ulloa  threw  open  his  salons  to  the  Creoles.  His  wife 
devoted  herself  to  her  guests.  But  her  fascinations 
were  unheeded;  her  beauty  found  no  favor  in  their 

52 


Tn   Spanish    Colonial   Days 

eyes;  her  accomplishments  did  not  dazzle  them. 
Everything  the  young  Senora  did  displeased  them. 
Trifles*  were  distorted  into  charges  against  the  luck- 
less couple.  Aubry,  the  French  governor,  remarked 
that  the  colony  scarcely  knew  whether  it  was  French 
or  Spanish.  Ulloa  turned  for  consolation  to  his 
books,  allowing  Aubry  to  govern  for  him  —  a  service 
for  which  the  Spanish  government  liberally  rewarded 
him.  The  high-born  lady  who  had  come  so  far  to 
preside  over  the  festivities  of  Government  House, 
having  exerted  herself  in  vain  to  please  the  people^  in 
future  treated  them  with  indifference. 

Towards  the  end  of  October  the  malcontents 
broke  into  open  insurrection,  and  patrolled  the  streets 
as  masters  of  the  town.  The  women  and  children 
fled  within  doors.  Aubry  successfully  exerted  him- 
self to  save  the  life  of  Ulloa,  and  hurried  him  on 
board  a  Spanish  frigate.  On  the  twenty-ninth  of 
October,  1768,  the  Governor  was  officially  informed  of 
his  dismissal  from  the  colony  by  the  insurgents.  On 
the  thirty-first  he  embarked  with  his  family,  and  next 
morning,  while  the  captain  was  waiting  for  a  fair  wind, 
a  band  of  insurrectionists  endangered  the  lives  of  all 
aboard  by  cutting  the  cables  which  held  the  vessel  to 
her  moorings  and  sending  her  adrift.  On  the  evening 
of  that  day  Ulloa  left  forever  the  country  so  persist- 

*  Madame  Ulloa  made  pets  of  several  Indian  girls,  she  sent  to 
Cuba  for  a  nurse  for  her  infant,  and,  with  a  humanity  that  does  her 
credit,  she  would  not  allow  refractory  slaves  to  be  beaten.  Worse 
than  all,  she  laughed  heartily  when  told  these  things  gave  oflfense. 

53 


Education   in   Louisiana 

ently  antagonistic  to  him.  Aubry  denounced  to  his 
government  the  doings  of  the  "rebels"  led  by  a 
"  dozen  firebrands  whom  it  was  absolutely  necessary 
to  punish." 

Whether  Seflor  or  Senora  Ulloa  did  anything  for 
education  in  New  Orleans  beyond  showing  the  ex- 
ample of  a  most  cultured  and  scholarly  pair,  we  have 
been  unable  to  learn.  It  is  almost  certain,  however, 
that  they  did  not.  The  colonists  were  from  first  to 
last  bitterly  opposed  to  them.  Even  the  exquisite 
musical  talent  which  the  Marchioness  exerted  for 
their  pleasure  failed  to  please.  They  could  not  for- 
give her  for  being  the  wife  of  the  man  they  so  cor- 
dially detested.  It  is  probable  that  the  Ulloas  were 
frequent  visitors  at  the  Ursuline  Convent,  situated  but 
a  few  squares  from  their  ofBcial  abode.  Within  its 
walls  they  could  find  congenial  spirits,  and  persons  of 
culture  may  be  expected  to  fraternize  wherever  they 
meet.  But  the  fact  that  the  nuns  continued  intensely 
French  through  all  changes  of  government,  may  have 
had  the  effect  of  lessening  the  warmth  of  the  friend- 
ship between  the  Ursulines  and  the  scholarly  people 
of  Government  House.  When  the  news  of  the  revo- 
lution reached  Madrid,  that  court  resolved  that  Spain 
should  keep  her  new  acquisition,  and  that  the  insult 
to  the  Spanish  crown  must  be  punished.  The  most 
distinguished  ofificer  then  in  the  service  of  Spain,  Don 
Alexander  O'Reilly,  was  commissioned  to  effect  this. 

O'Reilly  was  one  of  that  large  and  illustrious  band 
of    Irishmen,  who,   being  disabled    by    their   religion 

54 


In   Spanish    Colonia/    Days 

from  serving  their  country  as  soldiers  at  home,  earned 
honor,  glory,  fame,  and  sometimes  fortune,  under 
other  banners,  and  supplied  the  regiments  of  several 
continental  nations  with  their  most  efificient  leaders. 
Their  deeds  of  heroism  were  recounted  by  the  Suir  and 
the  Shannon,  under  the  shadow  of  the  Galtees  and  by 
the  cottier's  winter  fire.  And  the  people  persecuted 
at  home  were  consoled  to  hear  of  the  renown  their 
brothers  and  sons  were  winning  under  the  lilies  of 
France  and  the  sombre-hued  banner  of  Austria  and  the 
flaming  colors  of  Spain.  In  the  latter  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  there  was  no  braver  or  more  virtu- 
ous Irishman  in  foreign  military  service  than  Alexan- 
der O'Reilly  of  Meath. 

On  the  eighteenth  of  August,  1769,  this  renowned 
general  made  his  triumphal  entry  into  New  Orleans 
with  2,600  men,  the  choicest  of  the  armies  of  Spain, 
picked  by  himself.  Artillery,  light  infantry,  mounted 
riflemen,  and  cavalry  paraded  the  plaza  like  practised 
veterans,  as  they  were.  The  twenty-four  sail  which 
formed  the  fleet  were  bright  with  colors,  their  rigging 
being  alive  with  sailors  in  holiday  garb.  Shouts  of 
Viva  el  Rcy  rent  the  air.  The  bells  of  the  town  pealed 
merrily,  discharges  from  hundreds  of  guns  shrouded 
the  streets  in  smoke,  and  fire  flashing  along  the  lines 
m»ade  a  grim  illumination.  Drums  and  all  manner  of  mu- 
sical instruments  gave  out  their  best,  while  O'Reilly, 
preceded  by  splendidly  accoutred  men  bearing  heavy 
silver  maces,  moved  slowly  towards  the  church.  This 
superb  pageant  concluded  with  a    Te  Deiini. 

55 


Education  in  Louisiana 

The  very  next  day  O'Reilly,  who  was  a  most  ener- 
getic and  untiring  worker,  caused  the  case  of  the  au- 
thors   of    the    late    insurrection    to    be     investigated. 
Within  two  months  twelve  were  found  guilty,  of  whom 
one  died  in   prison,  six  were  banished,  and  five  were 
shot  at  Fort  St.  Charles,  behind  the  Ursuline  Convent 
to  the  south,  where  the  Mint  now  stands.     The  case 
had  been  appealed  from  the  Governor's  head  to  his 
heart ;  fair  ladies  besought  him  with  burning  words  to 
suspend  the  execution  of  the  sentence   of  the  court; 
even  his  colleagues  in  office  entreated  him  to  assume 
this  responsibility.     But,  while  treating  all  these  sup- 
plicants with  "  the  most  exquisite  politeness,"  he  was 
inflexible.     Though  but   thirty-four  years  old,  he   re- 
sisted  the  pleadings  of   men  and  the  tears  of  women, 
and  while  his  words  of  refusal  were  mild   and   conde- 
scending, and  he  listened  to  all  that  could  be  advanced 
with  extreme  gentleness  and  patience,  his  mobile  fea- 
tures assumed   the  stony,  impassive  expression  of  an 
Egyptian  sphynx,  as  he  announced    that  the  decision 
of  the  court  was  final.     In  refusing  the  boon  he  would 
gladly  have  granted,  O'Reilly   pleaded   the  orders  of 
the  king.     Peace  reigned  once  more,  and  the  nuns  and 
their  pupils  were  able  to  devote   themselves  without 
distraction  to  the  improvement  of  the  mind.     Among 
the  pages  in  O'Reilly's   retinue  was   a   princely  youth 
of   eighteen,    Sebastian  O'Farrell,   who  subsequently 
became  governor  of  Louisiana,  and  figured  conspicu- 
ously as  the   Marquis   Casacalvo.     He   was  distantly 
related  to  O'Reilly,  whose  son  and  heir  married  the 

56 


In   Spanish  Colonial  Days 

niece  of  O'Farrell.  The  younger  Conde  O'Reilly  set- 
tled in  Cuba,  where  his  descendants  still  live.  Casa- 
calvo  also  founded  a  distinguished  family  in  the  same 
island. 

The  wise  and  enlightened  administration  of 
O'Reilly  in  Louisiana  was  most  favorable  to  education, 
and  His  Excellency  did  not  fail  to  patronize  the  exist- 
ing  schools,  especially  those  of  the  Ursulines.  About 
this  time  it  became  fashionable  for  high  officials  to 
visit  and  patronize  convents.  The  Princess  Louise, 
youngest  daughter  of  Louis  XV.,  had  entered  the 
monastery  of  St.  Denis,  near  Paris — an  event  which 
her  royal  father  considered  of  sufficient  importance  to 
be  communicated  officially  to  every  court  in  Europe, 
and,  oddly  enough,  it  fell  to  the  infidel  minister.  Due 
de  Choiseul,  to  make  the  announcement,  which  was 
couched  in  the  following  terms : 

"The  deep  and  enduring  piety  of  Madame  Louise, 
the  king's  daughter,  has  inspired  her  with  the  project 
of  joining  the  Carmelites.  She  tested  her  vocation, 
and  having  obtained  the  king's  consent,  she  yesterday 
entered  a  monastery  of  that  order  at  St.  Denis,  where 
she  proposes  to  make  her  profession  as  a  simple  Re- 
ligious, leaving  absolutely  whatever  appertains  to  the 
world  or  its  dignities.  The  king  desires  me  to  an- 
nounce this  exemplary  and  touching  event  to  you." 
This  document  is  dated  April  12,  1770. 

O'Reilly  had  several  friends  and  near  relatives 
in  the  royal  Abbey  of  St.  Denis.  The  Prioress 
who  received  the  Princess  Louise,  "Julienne  de  Mac- 

57 


Education   in  Louisiana 

Mahon,"  was  an  Irishwoman,  and  most  of  the  nuns 
were,  Hke  herself,  exiles  from  Erin,  Irish  by  birth 
or  extraction.  "  I  have  an  Irish  guard  among  the 
Carmelites,"  said  Louis  XV. 

The  successors  of  O'Reilly  adopted  his  policy,  in- 
terfering as  little  as  possible  with  established  customs, 
and  filling  the  ofifices  for  the  most  part  with  men  of 
French  descent.  The  nine  Spanish  governors  were 
less  masters  than  fathers ;  they  were  all,  though  in 
different  degrees,  men  of  marked  intellectual  power 
and  superior  attainments.  They  made  themselves  one 
with  the  people.  Many  of  the  governors  and  other 
high  ofificials  allied  themselves  in  marriage  with  the 
families  of  the  soil.  The  New  Orleans  girl  who  mar- 
ried Count  Galvez  fulfilled  a  brilliant  destiny  as  vice- 
queen  of  Mexico. 

This  same  Galvez,  in  conjunction  with  Count  Ar- 
thur O'Neill  (1781),  recovered  Pensacola  from  the 
English.  He  had  previously  scaled  the  heights  of 
Baton  Rouge  and  driven  them  from  that  and  other 
forts.  These  victories  brought  Louisiana  a  large  ac- 
cession of  English-speaking  subjects,  to  minister  to 
whom  the  king  of  Spain  sent  from  the  University  of 
Salamanca  "  four  Irish  priests  of  recognized  zeal,  vir- 
tue, and  cultivation."  These  gentlemen,  Fathers 
McKenna,  Savage,  Lamport,  and  White,  were,  so  far 
as  we  can  ascertain,  the  first  secular  clergymen  who 
exercised  the  ministry  in  Louisiana."'' 

*One  of  these  priests  officiated  at  Natcliez.  In  1844  Bishop 
Chanche  petitioned  Congress  to  restore  to  that  city  the  property 

58 


In   Spanish  Colonial  Days 

Meanwhile,  great  attention  was  paid  to  education. 
Governor  Miro,  whose  wife,  a  McCarthy,  had  been  a 
pupil  of  the  Ursulines,  mentions  eight  schools  in  suc- 
cessful operation  in  1788,  frequented  by  400  French- 
speaking  scholars.  These  do  not  include  the  Ursuline 
schools,  always  largely  attended,  or  the  Spanish 
schools,  for  which  professors  of  the  first  universities 
had  come  from  Spain.  In  1785  the  population  of  New 
Orleans  was  4,900,  including  blacks  and  Indians.  The 
population  of  the  whole  colony  was  31,433.  Owing  to 
the  preference  of  the  people  for  the  French  language, 
the  Spanish  schools,  established  at  the  expense  of  the 
Crown,*  were  not  largely  attended  till  towards  the 
close  of  the  Spanish  domination.  Bishop  Penalvert, 
who  came  to  New  Orleans  in  1795,  and  wrote  unfavor- 
ably of  the  state  of  morals  and  religion  in  that  city, 
admits  that  "  the  Spanish  schools  have  been  kept   as 

given  to  the  Church  by  the  Spanish  Government.  Natchez  stands 
chiefly  on  church  property.  The  Bishop  found  the  necessary 
documents  in  Havana,  and  was  allowed  to  copy  them  by  the 
Captain-General  of  Cuba,  Seiior  O'Donnell.  But  his  appli- 
cation came  too  late.  The  lands  had  already  been  sold  to  private 
parties  by  the  U.  S.  Government. 

*In  1772  there  came  from  Spain  Don  Andreas  Lopez  De  Ar- 
mestro,  a  priest,  Director  of  the  Schools,  Don  Pedro  Aragon, 
maestro  de  Synfaxis,  Don  Manuel  Diaz  de  Lura,  professor  of 
Latin,  and  Don  Francisco  de  la  Celena,  maestro  de  frimeras 
lettras.  And  four  Spanish  ladies  took  the  veil  among  the  Ursu- 
lines. "This,"  says  Martin,  "was  the  only  encouragement  given 
to  learning  during  the  whole  period  of  Spanish  Government." 
And  it  was  more  than  enough,  considering  that  Nneva- Orleans 
was  already  well  supplied  with  schools. 

59 


Education   in  Louisiana 

they  ought  to  have  been."  The  manners  of  the  young 
were  refined  and  elegant.  They  were  obedient  and 
affectionate  to  their  parents,  to  whom  they  showed 
great  respect.  And  we  think  it  would  not  be  impossi- 
ble to  show  that,  in  all  the  essentials  of  a  good  educa- 
tion, the  people  of  New  Orleans  were,  comparatively 
speaking,  as  well  educated  a  century  ago  as  they  are 
now  —  perhaps  better. 

Since  the  memorable  eighteenth  of  August,  1769, 
when  the  terrible  vision  of  O'Reilly's  hussars  prancing 
and  curveting  amid  the  blare  of  trumpets,  the  glitter 
of  brass,  and  the  flash  of  steel,  had  cowed  the  people 
into  completest  subjection,  there  had  been  no  political 
disturbance.  Spiritually,  the  country  had  fallen  to 
the  ordinary  of  Havana.  He  sent  hither  Spanish 
Franciscans,  who  reported  unfavorably  of  their  French 
brethren  and  of  church  matters  in  general.  One  of 
the  new  friars.  Father  Cyrilo,  subsequently  became  his 
coadjutor,  with  special  charge  of  Louisiana.  Cyrilo  is 
the  only  ecclesiastic  who  wrote  a  word  of  censure  of 
the  nuns,  but  he  refers  merely  to  lack  of  strictness  of 
cloister.  He  mentions  their  director,  Father  Prosper, 
"  who  is  seventy-two  years  old,  strong  and  robust,  and 
capable  of  directing  them."  Cyrilo  urges  upon  mas- 
ters the  obligation  of  watching  over  the  morals  of 
their  slaves,  and  mentions  among  the  good  deeds  of 
O'Reilly  that  he  had  got  forty  persons  of  this  class, 
who  had  previously  lived  in  sin,  married  coram  facie 
Ecclesice.  Indeed,  that  governor,  to  his  honor  be  it 
recorded,  always  took  sides   with  the   weaker  races, 

60 


In   Spanish    Colonial   Days 

He  declared  it  to  be  "contrary  to  the  mild  and  benefi- 
cent laws  of  Spain  that  Indians  should  be  held  in 
bondapje,"  and  commanded  families  who  used  them  as 
slaves  to  emancipate  them. 

From  the  following,  which  occurs  in  a  State  paper 
written  by  Baron  Carondelet  to  his  government,  April 
27,  1793,  it  would  appear  that  Cirilo  was  in  Nueva- 
Orlcans  as  Bishop  :  "  When  I  arrived  in  New  Orleans 
I  found  it  divided  into  two  factions  —  the  one  headed 
by  Governor  Miro  and  backed  by  the  Bishop,  etc." 
In  1794  Louisiana  was  finally  detached  from  Havana, 
and  New  Orleans  has  since  been  a  distinct  see. 

The  Ursulines  prospered  greatly  under  the  Spanish 
rule,  for  which  they  had  at  first  so  little  welcome. 
Mother  Landelle,  who  was  Superior  when  the  revolu- 
tionary troubles  were  at  their  height,  in  1768,  wrote  to 
France  for  subjects,  but  the  three  who  answered  her 
appeal  were  not  allowed  to  become  members  of  her 
community  until  leave  was  granted  by  the  Court  of 
Madrid.  In  1795  Bishop  Pefialvert  complains  that 
"  the  nuns  are  so  intensely  French  that  they  refuse 
to  receive  Spanish  subjects  ignorant  of  French,  and 
shed  tears  for  being  obliged  to  make  their  spiritual 
exercises  in  Spanish  books."  In  the  early  years  of  the 
Spanish  ascendancy,  the  nuns  gave  up  the  service  of 
the  sick,*  partly  because  their  number  had  grown 
alarmingly  small,  and  partly  because  of  the  dislike  of 
the  Spaniards  of  that  day  to  nuns  undertaking  work 
outside  their  enclosure. 

*They  were  empowered  to  do  this  by  a  brief  from  the  Pope. 
61 


Education   in   Louisiana 

Many  Spanish  ladies  joined  the  Ursulines,  the 
most  distinguished  of  whom  was  Monica  de  Ramos, 
who  entered  the  Chartres  street  monastery  in  1770,  at 
the  age  of  nineteeen.  Monica  was  born  in  Havana. 
The  Scfiorita,  as  she  was  called,  seemed  destined  from 
childhood  to  some  great  and  holy  end.  While  a 
parlor-boarder  in  the  Convent  of  Santa  Clara,  her  soul 
was  filled  with  a  strong  desire  to  devote  herself  to 
God  and  the  salvation  of  souls  in  some  special  man- 
ner, and  this  impelled  her  to  cross  the  seas  and  enter 
the  cloisters  of  St.  Ursula.  Her  companion,  Sister 
Antonia  del  Castillo,  who  was  professed  with  her, 
afterwards  founded  the  Ursuline  schools  of  Puerto 
Principe.  Mother  Ramos  was  several  years  mistress  of 
novices,  and  in  this  office  showed  great  zeal  and  charity, 
being  the  first  to  labor  and  the  last  to  seek  repose. 
So  gentle  and  amiable  were  her  manners  that  the  Re- 
ligious were  wont  to  style  her  their  "  kind  mother/' 
and  seculars  "  the  noble  lady  always  devoted  to  duty." 
One  ©f  her  daughters  thus  apostrophized  her  in  an  elegy 
written  in  Spanish  after  her  death  :  "  O  Monica!  admir- 
able even  among  the  perfect,  thy  kind  heart  gained  all." 

Mother  Ramos  became  Superior  in  1785,  and  re- 
mained such  during  the  incumbency  of  Governor 
Miro.  Like  most  of  the  Spanish  governors,  Miro  was 
an  excellent  English  scholar,  and  with  his  wife,  Senora 
MacCarthy  Miro,  was  very  popular.  The  piety  and 
charity  of  this  illustrious  pair  were  lauded  throughout 
the  colony.     They  built  a  hospital*  for  the  unfortu- 

*  On  La  Terre  des  Lcpreiix,  in  the  rear  of  the  city. 
62 


In   Spanhli    Colonial    Days 

nate  creatures  afflicted  with  leprosy,  a  loathsome  dis- 
ease, supposed  to  have  been  brought  hither  from 
Africa,  and  which  has  not  yet  wholly  disappeared 
in  Louisiana.  As  Miro  made  stringent  regulations 
for  the  religious  observance  of  Sundays  and  holy  days, 
the  colored  people  were  not  allowed  to  begin  their 
Sunday  evening  dances  till  after  Vespers.  All  the 
governors  were  most  friendly  to  the  nuns.  Their 
schools  and  hospitals  were  frequently  visited  by  these 
high  officials,  who  lived  but  a  few  squares  from  the 
monastery.  On  November  i,  1795,  Mother  Farjon 
being  Superior,  Bishop  Pefialvert  wrote:  "Excellent 
results  are  obtained  from  the  convent,  in  which  a  good 
many  girls  are  educated.  .  .  .  This  is  a  nursery  of 
future  matrons  who  will  inculcate  on  their  children 
the  principles  they  imbibe  here." 

The  Bishop's  experience  in  New  Orleans  was  not 
cheering.  Immigrants  imbued  with  the  atheistical 
sentiments  —  we  cannot  say  doctrines  —  of  the  so- 
called  philosophers  of  Europe,  and  many  of  the  wild 
and  lawless  from  all  parts  of  America  made  sad  havoc 
in  New  Orleans  during  the  last  decade  of  the  Spanish 
domination.  In  1799  he  deplores  that  "  adventurers 
who  have  no  religion  and  no  God  have  deteriorated 
the  morals  of  the  people."  "  It  is  true,"  he  proceeds, 
"  that  resistance  to  religion  has  always  shown  itself 
here,  but  never  with  such  scandal  as  now  prevails." 
By  a  secret  treaty  Spain  returned  Louisiana  to  France 
October  i,  1800;  but  three  years  elapsed  before  France 
openly  accepted  the  gift. 

63 


Education   in  Louisiana 

To  the  Spanish  schools  succeeded  the  famous 
College  of  Orleans,  the  first  educational  institution 
incorporated  by  the  Legislature  of  Louisiana,  situated 
on  the  corner  of  Hospital  and  St.  Claude  streets. 
During  the  first  quarter  of  the  present  century  the 
forest  primeval  came  to  its  very  gates.  Every  spring 
the  thorny  arms  of  the  blackberry  bush,  spangled 
with  white  blossoms,  made  a  tangled  labyrinth  of 
undergrowth,  and  as  the  flowers  grew  into  green,  red, 
and  black  berries,  the  small  boys  of  the  city  invaded 
the  forest's  edge  to  seek  the  luscious  fruit.  The 
pupils  of  this  college  were  celebrated  for  their  classi- 
cal attainments  and  courteous  manners.  Here  Charles 
Gayarr^,  the  historian  *  of  Louisiana,  received  his 
education  in  English,  French,  Spanish,  classics,  and 
mathematics.  This  venerable  gentleman  still  walks 
among  us,  though  past  fourscore,  and,  as  a  scholar 
and  an  author,  Louisiana  cannot  show  his  su- 
perior.    (He  died  1896.) 

An  apostate  priest,  Joseph  Lakanal^  who  voted  in 
the  National  Convention  for  the  death  of  Louis  XVI., 
and  against  whom  other  grave  charges  were  made, 
was  appointed  principal  of  the  College  of  Orleans 
about  1 8 16.  The  people  on  learning  his  history, 
indignantly  withdrew  their  sons,  and  the  regicide 
fled.     Nor   could   most   of    them    ever  be  induced  to 

*  F.  X.  Martin  also  wrote  a  History  of  Louisiana,  but  there  is 
about  as  much  heart  and  style  in  Martin's  work  as  in  a  railway 
time-table.  Besides,  Martin  never  had  access  to  State  papers  in 
Spain  bearing  on  the  history  of  the  colony. 

64 


In   Spanish    Colonial   Days 

send  them  back.  The  institution  declined  from  day 
to  day,  and  was  finally  closed.  A  church  was  erected 
on  its  site  in  1841,  perhaps  in  a  spirit  of  reparation. 
To  this  church,  St.  Augustine's,  is  attached  a  thor- 
oughly Catholic  school. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  Hon.  Charles  Gayarre 
learned  English  so  well  in  New  Orleans  as  to  be  mis- 
taken for  an  Englishman  when  he  traveled  in  England 
early  in  the  present  century.  Daniel  Clark,  a  wealthy 
Irishman  who  lived  in  the  colony  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  Spanish  ascendancy,  was  U.  S.  Consul 
in  New  Orleans  under  the  later  Spanish  governors. 
Senor  Gayoso,  the  only  Spanish  governor  who  died 
in  office  (1799),  was  educated  in  England,  and  to  the 
convivial  habits  there  contracted  his  countrymen 
attributed  his  death  at  the  early  age  of  forty-eight. 
From  all  this  and  from  other  sources  it  may  be 
gathered  that  English  was  always  largely  spoken  in 
Louisiana,  though  not  universally,  as  it  has  been  for 
many  years. 

The  closing  decade  of  Spanish  rule,  like  that  ex- 
tending from  1760  to  1770,  was  a  period  of  turmoil 
and  anxiety.  Red  Republicanism  and  Jacobinism 
sought  admission  ;  the  French  Revolution  had  its  in- 
fluence on  the  whites,  and  the  success  of  the  San  Do- 
mingo revolution  excited  the  blacks  to  form  a 
conspiracy  for  the  ruin  of  the  whites,  which,  however, 
was  discovered  in  time  to  be  frustrated.  To  those 
who  could  read  the  signs  of  the  times  it  was  evident 
that  Louisiana  would,  happily,  through  force  of  circum- 
5  65 


Education  in  Louisiana 

stances,  soon  cease  to  be  an  appanage  of  any  European 
power,  and  enter  as  a  Territory,  and  later  as  a  sover- 
eign State,  the  recently  formed  Union. 

Rumors  that  the  mild  rule  of  Spain  was  to  be  ex- 
changed for  the  French  revolutionary  government 
naturally  raised  a  tempest  in  the  Ursuline  cloisters. 
The  excitement  and  terror  of  the  nuns,  who  feared  a 
repetition  of  the  horrors  that  had  disgraced  France, 
were  such  that  Mother  Ramos,  on  the  fourth  of  Octo- 
ber, 1802,  made  a  formal  petition  to  the  king  of  Spain, 
Charles  IV.,  to  allow  her  community  to  withdraw  to 
Havana  or  Mexico,  or  some  other  city  in  his  domin- 
ions. The  Spanish  annals  say  that  the  peace  which 
had  reigned  under  Spanish  rule  passed  away  with  it, 
that  the  revolutionary  government  showed  a  bitter 
hatred  of  Spain,  and  that,  as  many  of  the  nuns  were 
Spanish,  they  came  in  for  their  share  of  persecution. 
Heretofore,  the  fullest  religious  liberty  had  been  en- 
joyed in  Louisiana.  Under  the  "unenlightened" 
sway  of  Catholic  France  and  Spain,  not  a  hair  of  any 
one's  head  was  ever  touched  from  religious  motives. 
The  old  Creoles  would  shrug  their  shoulders  when 
they  heard  that  witches  were  burned,  Quakers  hanged, 
and  Catholics  tortured  in  New  England  by  a  people 
who  claimed  liberty  of  conscience  for  themselves. 
Now  it  was  confidently  expected  that  French  rule 
would  inaugurate  religious  persecution,  and  it  seemed 
only  discretion,  that  better  part  of  valor,  to  retire  be- 
fore the  storm  burst  upon  them.  The  priests  were 
allowed  to  depart,  but  all  parties  were  anxious  to  keep 

66 


In   Spanish    Colonial    Days 

the  Ursulines.  Their  schools  had  been  a  blessing  and 
a  boon  to  the  colony  from  its  earliest  days.  The 
French  colonial  prefect,  Laussat,  besought  them  not 
to  think  of  forsaking  the  city  ;  the  chief  citizens  knelt 
to  them,  but  in  vain. 

It  was  not  a  Spaniard,  however,  but  a  French- 
woman, that  reproached  Laussat  with  the  hideous 
crimes  the  Revolution  had  perpetrated  (1789-1803) 
against  religion  and  humanity,  and  denounced  the 
French  Republic  as  impious  and  sacrilegious:  "Your 
promises  of  protection,"  said  she,  "are  lies.  You  know 
well  that  Louisiana  has  been  sold  to  the  United  States," 
whose  President  is  not  particularly  friendly  to  Spain." 
The  other  Religious  were  terrified  at  the  vehemence 
of  these  denunciations,  but  no  guillotine  was  set  up  in 
Louisiana,  and  Laussat  gallantly  excused  the  lady  on 
account  of  her  great  age.  We  may  add  that  Sister 
Margaret  died  in  Cuba  in  181 1,  in  her  eighty-second 
year.  The  Havana  annals  note  that  the  surviving  Sis- 
ters were  scarcely  able  to  chant  the  ofifice  at  her  obse- 
quies, "  by  reason  of  their  great  weeping  for  this 
beloved  mother." 

Mother  Ramos  consulted  the  Vicar-General,  Hasset, 
Governor  Salcedo,  and  the  late  Governor  O'Farrell, 
Marquis  Casacalvo,  a  superb  soldier,  born  like  herself 
in  175 1,  and  allied  by  blood  to  Count  O'Reilly,  under 
whom  he  had  served  as  a  cadet  in  Louisiana,  in  1769, 
and  who  consequently  knew  the  country  from  the 
earliest  days  of  Spanish  rule.  It  was  unanimously 
agreed  that  the  safest  course  for  the  nuns  to  adopt 

67 


Education  in  Louisiana 

under  the  present  critical  circumstances  was  to  retire 
to  the  dominions  of  the  king  of  Spain. 

It  is  customary  for  the  Ursulines  to  make  a  retreat 
immediately  before  Whitsunday,  and  renew  their 
vows  on  that  solemn  day.  Greatly  did  the  New  Or- 
leans nuns  need  the  strength  and  grace  to  be  derived 
from  such  pious  exercises  on  the  feast  of  Pentecost, 
May  29,  1803.  On  the  night  of  that  day  sixteen  nuns, 
without  waiting  for  the  answer  of  the  Catholic  king, 
left  the  Chartres  street  monastery  forever.  With  their 
faces  and  forms  concealed  by  their  ample  robes,  they 
issued  slowly  by  the  chapel  gate  into  Ursuline  street, 
accompanied  to  the  inclosure  limits  by  the  few  who 
remained  behind,  and  whom  they  were  never  again  to 
meet.  Those  who  left  lauded  the  courage  of  those 
who  stayed  :  "  Great  was  their  heroism  to  stay  in  New 
Orleans  fighting  for  God,  never  heeding  the  dangers 
that  surrounded  them,  offering  all  their  pains  with 
loving  gratitude  to  God.  The  priests  had  already 
left,  scarcely  any  remaining,  owing  to  the  critical  con- 
dition of  Louisiana.  Bishop  Penalvert  had  been  trans- 
lated to  Guatemala  in  1802.  Dr.  Porro,  second  Bishop 
of  New  Orleans,  died  in  Rome  the  same  year,  on  the 
eve  of  his  intended  departure  for  his  episcopal  city. 
By  the  transfer  of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States, 
New  Orleans  fell  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Bishop 
Carroll,  and  for  twelve  years  Bishop  Porro  had  no 
successor. 

Under  the  shadow  of  the  convent  chapel  on  that 
bright  May  evening  (1803),  a  sadly  beautiful  tableau 

68 


In   Spanish    Colonial   Days 

was  dimly  visible  in  the  glare  of  the  oil-lamps,  recently- 
swung  across  the  streets  by  the  energetic  Baron 
Carondelet,*  and  the  flickering  of  the  torches  and 
lanterns  borne  by  the  slaves  who  headed  the  pro- 
cession. The  nuns  were  accompanied  by  Vicar-General 
Hasset  on  the  part  of  the  Church,  and,  on  the  part  of 
the  king,  by  O'Farrell,  Marquis  of  Casacalvo,  and  the 
aged  Salcedo,  Governor  of  Louisiana,  both  richly 
uniformed  and  surrounded  by  attendants  in  gaudy 
liveries.  The  boarders  and  orphans  formed  a  sorrow- 
ing group  about  their  beloved  teachers,  and  the  slaves 
who  worked  in  the  quaint  gardens  came  out  to  look 
their  last  on  their  kind  mistresses.  Outside  the 
throng  were  gens  (T amies  in  brilliant  uniforms  faced 
with  gold,  Indians  in  picturesque  feathers  and  blankets, 
and  serenes  (watchmen)  calling  out  the  hour.  Among 
the  old  friends  who  came  to  see  the  Religious  off,  one 
might  note  the  powdered  head,  the  gold  and  velvet 
coat,  the  frilled  and  jeweled  shirt  front,  the  red- 
heeled  shoe  and  silver  buckle  —  the  shining  gown 
of  stiff  brocade,  the  lace  head-dress  set  over  high- 
combed  hair,  which  we  see  imprisoned  in  the  sweet 
family  portraits  of  a  bygone  age  treasured  in  many 
a  Louisiana  home. 

Slowly  over  the  sedgy  banquettes  (sidewalks),  made 
passable  here  and  there  by  the  gunwales  of  flat-boats, 
moved   these    dark-robed,   sorrowing    women.      They 

*  One  of  the  principal  streets  in  New  Orleans  perpetuates  the 
name  of  Carondelet  —  Baronne  street  is  called  after  his  wife,  La 
Baronne. 

69 


Ed ncatio>i    ni   AouisiiDia 

were  leaving  the  convent  in  which  some  had  lived 
from  childhood,  in  which  all  had  hoped  to  die,  to 
seek  a  home  they  knew  not  where,  and  carve  out  for 
themselves  a  destiny  they  knew  not  how.  No  prep- 
arations had  been  made  for  the  journey.  They  carried 
away  only  some  documents*  which  ought  to  have 
been  left  behind,  and  a  few  ornaments  for  the  altar 
which  their  Sisters  forced  upon  them  as  precious 
souvenirs  of  their  beloved  old  monastery.  A  negro 
and  his  son,  a  boy  of  fifteen,  formed  their  only  escort. 
They  embarked  in  a  small  vessel  which  had  scarcely 
left  her  moorings  when  she  was  becalmed.  For  three 
days  they  awaited  a  favorable  wind.  Their  Sisters 
sent  them  refreshments,  and,  "  though  far  away  in 
body,  were  with  them  in  spirit,"  as  the  charming  notes 
that  passed  between  the  parties  testified.  "  All  were 
united  in  the  bonds  of  charity,  and  tried  to  act  in  this 
difficult  situation  with  the  greatest  purity  of  inten- 
tion." 

Our  nuns  and  their  black  servants  had  ample 
leisure  to  study  the  little  Franco-Spanish  city  they 
were  leaving  forever.  It  made  a  pretty  picture  in  the 
summer  sunlight.  What  forms  the  French  quarter 
to-day,  and  is,  save  in  its  antiquarian  and  historic 
aspect,  the  least  important  part  of  New  Orleans,  was 
then  the  whole  city.  It  extended  from  the  river 
to   the    ramparts   (Rampart   street)   and    from    Duane 

*  As  the  remaining  nuns  expected  the  French  Revolution  in 
miniature  in  New  Orleans,  they  allowed  these  papers  to  be  sent  to 
Havana  for  safety. 

70 


In   Spanish    Colonial   Days 

street  to  the  Esplanade.  The  houses  near  the  river 
were  of  brick,  roofed  with  tiles;  a  levee  crowned  with 
willow  and  orange  trees  protected  the  town  from 
periodical  overflows.  The  plaza,  a  green  lawn  with 
diagonal  walks,  was  crowded  late  and  early  with  the 
air-loving  citizens.  Above  this  rose  the  cathedral  of 
Almonaster  (a  Spaniard  who  spent  $2,000,000  on  his 
adopted  city),  an  exquisite  structure  with  white 
turrets  and  shining  cross,  in  and  out  of  which  women 
veiled  in  Moorish  style,  and  attended  by  slaves,  might 
be  seen  gliding,  often  laden  with  votive  offerings. 
The  silvery  bells  of  the  convent  echoed  the  mellow 
tones  of  the  cathedral  chimes  as  they  rang  out  the 
Angelus  morning,  noon,  and  night.  The  cabildo,  the 
calaboza,  the  hospitals,  and  the  forts,  all  teeming  with 
religious  and  historic  associations;  their  own  loved 
convent,  then  visible  from  the  river;  the  houses 
daubed  with  violet  or  saffron,  pink  or  white,  a  mosaic 
of  colors,  were  surrounded  by  open  galleries  and 
jalousies,  decked  with  flowering  shrubs  and  shaded  by 
moss-draped  trees  —  perhaps  the  nuns,  as  they  lay 
rocking  in  the  river,  tried  to  enjoy  these  sights. 
Before  them  was  the  busy  levee  —  old  negresses  with 
Indian  baskets  full  of  rice-cakes,  singing  in  "gumbo 
French  "  the  nutritious  qualities  of  their  belle  calla  ; 
colored  wenches  bringing  Marseilles  jars  to  be  filled 
by  the  water-carriers ;  picturesque  gypsies  selling  nut- 
cakes  in  the  arcades  of  the  courthouse,  about  the 
corners  of  old  quadrangular  buildings,  or  among  the 
shadows  of  a  many-pillared  colonial  villa.    On  these 

71 


Education   in  Louisiana 

warm  days  merchants  put  their  goods  on  the  ban- 
quettes, and  waresmen  praised  their  wares  in  many 
a  dialect.  Towards  sunset  negroes  danced  the 
bamboiila  and  the  calinda  in  vacant  patches,  and 
jabbered  and  sang  in  the  barbaric  jargon  of  Sene- 
gambia. 

No  doubt  the  poor  nuns  wearied  of  these  sights 
and  sounds,  and  were  heartily  glad  when  a  favorable 
wind  arose.  Gradually  they  lost  sight  of  the  twin 
turrets  of  the  cathedral  and  its  glittering  cross,  swept 
down  the  river  and  out  of  the  dreary  passes  by  which 
it  glides  into  the  sea.  Many  a  time  has  the  writer 
been  actually  depressed  in  going  through  these  chan- 
nels, in  which,  whatever  way  one  looks,  one  sees, 
perhaps,  the  bleakest  prospect  on  earth.  How  must 
the  poor  nuns  have  felt!  Their  voyage  across  the 
gulf  was  tedious.  They  reached  Havana  on  June 
23d.  As  they  were  entirely  unexpected,  no  prepara- 
tions had  been  made  for  them.  The  Bishop  sent  six 
to  the  Convent  of  Santa  Clara  (Poor  Clares),  six  to 
Santa  Catalina  (Dominican  nuns),  and  four  to  Santa 
Teresa  (Carmelites). 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  July  Mother  Ramos  was 
consoled  by  a  kind  letter  from  Madrid  signed  by  the 
king,  in  reply  to  hers  of  October,  1802.  His  Catholic 
Majesty  expressed  himself  as  much  pleased  with  the 
good  the  nuns  had  effected  in  the  past,  and  graciously 
invited  them  to  continue  their  useful  labors  in  Ha- 
vana. He  granted  each  Sister  a  monthly  pension  of 
twenty-seven    dollars,    payable    till    his    death,    and 

72 


In   Spanish    Colonial   Days 

strongly  recommended  the  Ursulines  to  the  fatherly 
care  of  the  Bishop. 

The  people  of  Havana  welcomed  the  refugees  with 
tender,  respectful  kindness,  and  began  at  once  to 
build  them  a  magnificent  monastery.  To  this  they 
went  in  carriages,  escorted  by  the  Governor  and  all 
the  nobility  of  the  city  (1804).  Many  distinguished 
ladies  joined  them,  and  the  training  of  the  novices  and 
the  education  of  the  future  teachers  of  the  Order  were 
confided  to  the  only  Irishwoman  in  the  band  that  fled 
from  New  Orleans,  "  Sister  Felicitas  Carder."  Twelve 
Spaniards,  three  Frenchwomen,  and  herself  composed 
this  band.  The  splendor  of  the  new  house  was  a  gen- 
uine surprise  to  the  Sisters,  especially  the  finely-carved 
stalls  and  the  sparkling  chandeliers  in  the  chapel.  It 
is  particularly  and  gratefully  noted  that  each  Relig- 
ious had  her  own  cell,  which  contained  a  "  leathern 
bed,  two  chairs,  and  a  clothes-press  in  the  shape  of  a 
table." 

Fearing  that  it  might  be  inferred  that  they  were 
fugitives  from  their  monastery  because  they  left  it 
late  at  night,  the  nuns  took  care  to  record  that  their 
passports  were  regularly  signed,  that  they  were  es- 
corted to  the  ship  by  the  highest  religious,  civil,  and 
military  ofificials,  and,  finally,  that  the  hour  of  depart- 
ure was  not  chosen  by  them,  but  appointed  by  the 
captain.  They  reiterated  that  the  only  motive  of  their 
departure  was  "  to  save  themselves  from  the  impious 
revolutionary  government  of  France."  The  French 
claimed  authority  over  the  property  of  Religious,  and 

73 


Education   in  Louisiana 

confiscated  such  property  in  France.  It  was  said  that 
Laussat  meant  to  sell  the  New  Orleans  monastery  or 
turn  it  from  its  sacred  purpose.  All  manner  of  wild 
rumors  were  afloat.  Spain,  by  her  commissioners, 
O'Farrell  and  Salcedo,  ceded  the  colony  to  France, 
November  30,  1803.  Twenty  days  later  the  United 
States  took  possession  of  Louisiana,  having  purchased 
it  from  France  for  fifteen  million  dollars. 

It  comes  not  within  the  scope  of  this  paper  to  re- 
count the  story  of  the  Havana  Ursulines.  We  shall 
merely  add  that  what  they  had  feared  in  Louisiana 
came  upon  them,  after  a  short  period  of  prosperity,  in 
Cuba.  The  Government  closed  their  novitiate,  and 
compelled  them  to  leave  the  cloister  and  put  off  their 
sacred  garb.  After  suffering  in  many  ways  for  years, 
they  were  allowed  to  reassemble  in  community  in  1824. 
But  the  beloved  Mother  Ramos,  the  joy  and  consola- 
tion of  her  daughters  in  all  their  afflictions,  did  not 
live  to  see  this  happy  time.  She  died  October  23, 
1823.  Their  chief  friend  during  their  long  and  griev- 
ous persecution  w'as  Very  Rev.  Don  Bernardo 
O'Gahan,  Canon  of  the  Havana  Cathedral.  Queen 
Isabella  II.,  whose  confessor  was  made  first  Arch- 
bishop of  Havana,  has  been  a  generous  benefactress 
to  these  nuns.  On  one  occasion  Her  Majesty  sent 
them  a  gift  of  twelve  thousand  dollars. 

Early  American  times  may  be  said  to  belong  to  the 
Spanish  period,  not  only  because  there  was  no  social 
or  religious  change  for  many  years,  but  also  because 
there  was  in  the  breast  of  every  one  either  a  hope  or  a 

74 


///    Spanish    Colo)iial    Days 

fear  that  Spain  would  retake  Louisiana.  When  the 
stars  and  stripes  replaced  the  tri-color,  and  Nouvelle- 
Orleans  and  Nueva-Orlcans  had  given  place  forever  to 
New  Orleans,  the  nuns  were  more  uneasy  than  ever. 
And  not  causelessly,  for  nothing  could  be  more  dark 
and  threatening  than  the  aspect  of  public  affairs.  The 
Creoles  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  new  order  of  things. 
And  so  little  was  the  genius  of  the  American  Govern- 
ment understood  in  her  latest  acquisition,  that  people 
supposed  to  be  well  informed  kept  the  nuns  in  con- 
tinual agitation  ;  to-day,  they  were  to  be  expelled  ;  to- 
morrow, their  property,  which  was  considerable,  was  to 
be  confiscated  ;  next  day,  the  utmost  concession 
granted  them  was  leave  to  stay  in  their  convent  till 
the  present  inmates  should  die  out. 

Internally,  the  nuns  were  doing  well.  Two  sub- 
jects had  been  recently  added  to  their  staff,  and  their 
boarders  numbered  170.  Under  these  circumstances 
the  Superior,  Mother  Farjon,  addressed  a  letter  to 
Bishop  Carroll,  which  he  forwarded  to  Mr.  Madison, 
then  Secretary  of  State,  later  President,  who  sent  the 
following  courteous  reply,  July  28,  1804  : 

"  I  have  had  the  honor  to  lay  before  the  President  your  letter 
of  the  fourteenth  of  December,  who  views  with  pleasure  the  pub- 
lic benefit  resulting  from  the  benevolent  endeavors  of  the  respect- 
able persons  in  whose  behalf  it  is  written.  Be  assured  that  no 
opportunity  will  be  neglected  of  manifesting  the  real  interest  he 
takes  in  promoting  the  means  of  aflFording  to  the  youth  of  this 
new  portion  of  the  American  dominion  a  pious  and  useful  educa- 
tion, and  of  evincing  the  grateful  sentiments  due  to  those  of  all 
religious  persuasions   who  so   laudably  devote   themselves   to  its 

75 


Education   in  Louisiana 

diffusion.  It  was  under  the  influence  of  such  feelings  that  Gov- 
ernor Claiborne  had  already  assured  the  ladies  of  this  monastery 
of  the  entire  protection  which  will  be  afforded  them  after  the  re- 
cent change  of  government. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  great  respect,  etc., 

James  Madison." 

Mother  Farjon  wrote  direct  to  the   President,  who 
consoled  her  with  the  following  reply : 

"  The  President  of  the  United  States  to  Soeur  Therese  de  St. 
Xavier  Farjon,  Superieure,  and  the  Nuns,  etc.: 
"  I  have  received.  Holy  Sisters,  the  letters  you  have  written 
to  me,  wherein  you  express  anxiety  for  the  property  vested  in 
your  institution  by  the  former  Government  of  Louisiana.  The 
principles  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  are  a  sure  guar- 
antee to  you  that  it  will  be  preserved  to  you  sacred  and  inviolate,  that 
your  in.stitution  will  be  permitted  to  govern  itself  according  to  its 
own  voluntary  rules,  without  interference  from  the  civil  authority. 
Whatever  diversity  of  shade  may  appear  in  the  religious  opinions 
of  our  fellow-citizens,  the  charitable  objects  of  your  institution 
cannot  be  indifferent  to  any  ;  and  its  furtherance  of  the  wholesome 
purposes  of  society  by  training  up  its  young  members  in  the  way 
they  should  go,  cannot  fail  to  insure  it  the  patronage  of  the  Gov- 
ernment it  is  under.  Be  assured  it  will  meet  with  all  the  protec- 
tion my  office  can  give  it. 

"  I  salute  you,  Holy  Sisters,  with  friendship  and  respect, 

Thomas  Jefferson." 

The  first  American  governor,  Claiborne,  treated 
the  Ursulines  with  great  deference.  On  taking  ofifice 
he  assured  them,  on  the  part  of  the  President,  of  the 
protection  of  the  United  States  Government.  Early 
in  his  administration  a  comedy  was  put  on  the  stage 
in  which  the  religious  state  was  ridiculed  ;  the  Lady 
Abbess  invoked  the  interference  of   His  Excellency, 

76 


In   Spanish    Colonial   Days 

who  at  once  communicated  with  the  mayor,  "  to  whom 
belongs  the  duty  of  checking  the  abuses  of  the  stage." 
A  courteous  reply,  in  which  the  Governor  expresses 
great  regret  that  the  feelings  of  these  pious  ladies 
should  have  been  wounded,  concludes : 

"  The  sacred  objects  of  your  Order,  the  amiable  characters 
that  compose  it,  and  the  usefulness  of  their  temporal  cares,  can- 
not fail  to  command  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  good  and 
virtuous.  I  pray  you.  Holy  Sisters,  to  receive  the  assurances  of 
my  great  respect  and  sincere  friendship.     I  salute  you,  etc., 

William   Claiborne." 

No  one  could  be  more  kind  and  respectful  to  the 
Sisters  than  the  Protestants,  Madison  and  Claiborne, 
and  Jefferson,  who  is  usually  classed  as  an  infidel. 
When  Jefferson  died,  leaving  his  family  destitute, 
Louisiana,  mindful  of  his  courtesy,  voted  his  heirs  ten 
thousand  dollars. 

But  despite  the  kindness  of  these  officials,  many 
within  the  convent  and  outside  were  extremely  unset- 
tled. Having  changed  rulers  three  times  in  twenty 
days,  they  could  not  believe  they  were  at  last  under  a 
stable  government.  The  sale  or  cession  was  very  un- 
popular. There  were  sympathizers  with  Spain,  and 
Jacobins,  and  Burrites,  and  "  dangerous  Americans,"  * 

*  Among  the  Americans  who  posed  as  friends  of  Spain  was 
Wilkinson.  *'  I  shall  always  be  ready,"  said  he,  "  to  defend  the 
interests  of  Spain  with  my  tongue,  my  pen,  and  my  sword." 
"Thank  you,  dearest  friend,"  said  Governor  Miro.  "  I  am  anx- 
ious to  become  a  Spaniard,  the  first  opportunity."  "  You !  a 
Spaniard,  Sir,"  exclaimed  Miro;  "Oh,  no!  That  cannot  be.  Con- 
tinue to  dissemble  and  work  underground.  Retain  your  Ameri- 
can pen,  etc.     You  can  serve  us  better  in  that  guise."     "  Thus 

77 


Education   /;/   Louisiana 

who  wanted  back  Spanish  rule.  In  external  appear- 
ance and  accomplishments  Claiborne  contrasted  poorly 
with  O'Farrell,  the  "lordly  Casacalvo,"  whose  "ex- 
quisite politeness  "  *  rather  embarrassed  the  republican 
Governor.  The  people,  accustomed  to  see  only  fine 
linguists  in  high  places,  complained  that  neither  Clai- 
borne nor  his  colleague,  Wilkinson,  could  speak  a 
word  of  French  or  Spanish. 

Religion  was  in  a  deplorable  state.  Father  Hasset 
died  in  1804.  Father  Antonio  Sedella,  who,  for  at- 
tempting to  introduce  the  Inquisition  in  1789,  had 
been  summarily  dismissed  by  Governor  Miro,  had 
found  his  way  back.  He  was  again  dismissed  by  Vicar- 
General  Walsh  in  1805,  but  appealed  to  the  parishioners 
and  was  reinstated  by  them.  The  affair  was  brought 
to  the  civil  courts,  and  there  were  Valesians  in  New 
Orleans  as  well  as  in  Ireland.  The  fourth  of  July  was 
celebrated  by  a  grand  High  Mass  and  Te  Deiivi  in  the 
Cathedral.  Death  removed  Father  Walsh,  but  not 
the  ecclesiastical  troubles  that  had  harassed  him, 
which  ended  in  a  schism.  The  aged  Father  Olivier, 
appointed  Vicar-General  by  Bishop  Carroll,  December 
27.  1806,  was  the  only  priest  in  the  city  who  had  fac- 
ulties. 

Since  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits,  the  Capuchins 
spoke  Spanish  pride  and  honor,"  says  Gayarre.  "Is  there  on 
record  a  more  striking  specimen  of  withering  contempt?" 

*When  reproached  for  returning  the  salutation  of  a  negro 
with  as  much  gracious  respect  as  he  would  that  of  a  prince,  Casa- 
calvo mildly  asked  :  "  And  do  you  suppose  that  I  would  suffer  my- 
self to  be  outdone  in  politeness  by  a  negro?" 


In   Spanish    Colonial    Days 

had  been  directors  of  the  Ursulines,  but  from  the 
opening  of  the  century  they  appear  no  more  in  that 
capacity.  Their  directors  since  have  been  Fathers 
Olivier,  1806,  Moni  and  Sibour,  1822,  Richard,  1834, 
Janney  and  Roussillon  till  1842,  when  M.  I'Abbe  Per- 
che  succeeded  till  1870,  when  he  was  raised  to  the 
episcopate.  The  Jesuits  then,  after  the  lapse  of  over 
a  century,  resumed  their  direction. 

In  1812  Bishop  Carroll  sent  Rev.  William  Dubourg, 
a  native  of  San  Domingo,  to  regulate  affairs ;  but  so 
many  obstacles  were  raised  by  those  who  should  have 
aided  him,  that  he  placed  the  city  under  an  interdict. 
The  Cathedral  was  closed,  and  in  the  Ursuline  chapel 
only  w^as  Mass  celebrated.  The  chaplain  being  over 
eighty,  the  nuns  feared  they  might  soon  be  deprived 
of  Mass  and  the  sacraments,  and  they  petitioned  the 
Holy  Father  to  allow  them  to  go  to  France,  where 
peace  now  reigned.  His  Holiness  himself  deigned  to 
reply  in  the  following  letter  addressed  to  Mother 
Marie  Olivier: 

"  Madame  : —  Your  letter  of  May  2d,  reached  us  only  towards 
the  end  of  September.  We  are  very  sensible  of  your  good  wishes 
for  our  preservation  and  the  success  of  our  enterprises,  always 
directed  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  advantage  of  the  Church. 
As  to  the  inquietudes  that  agitate  you  regarding  your  spiritual 
direction,  they  cannot  last,  for  M.  Dubourg  has  received  from  Us 
Bulls,  and  has  been  consecrated  at  Rome,  by  our  order,  Bishop  of 
the  diocese  of  New  Orleans,  to  which  he  will  soon  return.  You 
may,  then,  be  tranquil  as  to  your  future,  and  give  up  the  project 
of  going  to  France ;  you  can  do  much  more  for  religion  where 
you  are.  Therefore  we  exhort  you  to  redouble  your  zeal  for 
young  persons  of  your  sex  and  for  the  eternal  salvation  of  your 

79 


Education   in  Louisiana 

neighbor.  We  have  your  community  continually  present  to  our 
mind,  especially  in  our  prayers,  to  obtain  for  you  all  the  graces 
you  need,  and  we  give  you,  with  effusion  of  heart,  our  Apostolic 
benediction. 

"  Given  at  Castel  Gandolfo,  near  Rome,  the  sixteenth  of  Oc- 
tober, 1815,  of  our  Pontificate  the  XVI.  year. 

Pius  VII.,  PP." 

Abb^  Dubourg  officiated  at  the  thanksgiving  for 
the  success  of  the  American  arms  in  the  battle  of 
New  Orleans.  From  their  galleries  and  dormer 
windows  the  nuns  could  see  the  smoke  rising  from 
the  plains  of  Chalmette  and  hear  the  sharp  report  of 
rifles  and  the  thunder  of  cannon,  January  8,  1815. 
All  night  they  watched  before  the  Blessed  Sacrament, 
beseeching  the  Lord  of  Hosts  to  give  victory  to  the 
Americans.  Over  the  entrance  of  the  monastery  was 
exposed  an  image  of  Our  Lady  of  Prompt  Succor, 
still  religiously  preserved  by  the  New  Orleans  Ursu- 
lines.  That  morning  Abb6  Dubourg  said  Mass  in  the 
convent  chapel  for  the  same  intention.  There  were 
present  only  women  and  children ;  the  men  were  on 
the  battle-field.  Humanly  speaking,  the  English  were 
certain  to  win.  Never  had  the  nuns  been  in  such 
danger.  The  horrible  watchword  of  the  enemy  was 
Booty  and  Beauty.  Had  the  day  gone  against  Jackson, 
he  would,  had  he  survived,  have  blown  up  the  city. 
"  For,"  said  he,  using  energetic  expletives  which  we 
forbear  from  quoting,  "  New  Orleans  shall  never  fall 
into  the  hands  of  the  British." 

A  magnificent  pageant  celebrated  this  great  vic- 
tory.    General  Jackson  entered  the   city  in  triumph 

80 


In   Spanish    Colonial    Days 

January  23,  1815.  In  the  midst  of  the  historic 
plaza,  now  Jackson  square,  a  triumphal  arch  was 
erected,  supported  by  symbolic  figures.  Under  this 
he  was  crowned  by  a  fair  girl  who  represented  Louis- 
iana. He  moved  slowly  through  an  avenue  of  lovely 
girls  representing  the  States  and  Territories,  with 
silver  stars  on  their  foreheads,  flags  in  their  right 
hands,  and,  hanging  from  their  left  arms,  baskets  of 
flowers,  which  they  emptied  beneath  the  feet  of  the 
preserver  of  New  Orleans.  M.  Dubourg  received  him 
at  the  church  door. 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  who  witnessed  the  procession 
of  July  13,  1734,  were  present  January  23,  181 5, 
though  some  of  the  Creoles  and  negroes  live  to  a  great 
age.  But  many  were  there  —  the  whole  city  turned 
out  to  do  honor  to  its  savior  —  that  remembered  the 
picked  veterans  of  Spain  who  paraded  the  same 
square  and  drew  up  before  the  church,  under  another 
warrior  of  the  same  race  —  a  race  always  enamored  of 
religion  and  poetry  and  military  glory.  But  the 
gallant  O'Reilly  was  judge  and  savior,  whereas  Jack- 
son was  savior  alone.  There  was  not,  as  he  poetically 
said,  a  cypress  leaf  in  the  laurel  circlet  that  crowned 
him. 

The  conqueror  *  visited  the  nuns  to  receive  their 
felicitations  and  thank  them  for  their  prayers  and 
vows  in  his  behalf.       Nor    did    he   ever  omit  to  call 

*  There  were  nuns  in  the  convent  when  Jackson  visited  it  who 
could  describe  for  him  the  later  French  governors  and  all  the 
Spanish  governors. 

6  81 


Education  in  Louisiana 

on  the  nuns  on  his  subsequent  visits  to  New  Orleans. 
Jackson  was  the  last  great  soldier  that  passed  into  the 
cloisters  of  the  old  monastery,  and  the  only  President 
of  the  United  States  that  ever  stood  within  its  pre- 
cincts. 

After  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  the  convent  school 
rooms  were  turned  into  infirmaries,  and  the  nuns 
resumed  their  role  of  hospital  nurses.  Their  schools 
flourished  more  than  ever.  The  people  were  now 
thoroughly  reconciled  to  American  rule,  and  all  hopes 
or  fears  of  again  becoming  an  appanage  of  any  Eu- 
ropean power  had  perished  forever.  In  1817  Bishop 
Dubourg  brought  the  nuns  nine  postulants  from 
Europe.  In  1821  he  wrote  to  Quebec  for  a  few  ex- 
perienced members.  His  letter  shows  the  state  of 
the  convent:  "In  point  of  numbers  the  house  gives 
me  no  cause  for  alarm,  but  when  I  consider  the  age 
of  the  ancient  pillars  of  that  edifice,  and  that,  at  the 
moment,  not  remote,  of  their  fall,  there  will  remain 
only  feeble  reeds  to  replace  them,  I  cannot  be  tran- 
quil as  to  the  consequences."  This  metaphorical 
language  was  meant  to  convey  that,  as  the  nuns  were 
all  very  old  or  very  young,  there  were  none  in  the 
prime  of  life  to  succeed  the  elders.  "  Send  us,  then," 
he  continues,  dropping  metaphor,  "  three  or  four 
professed  nuns  of  mature  age,  good  judgment,  and 
formed  to  the  practice  of  virtue,  to  fill  the  void  be- 
tween the  aged  and  the  young."  It  was  far  easier  to 
travel  from  Quebec  to  Europe  than  from  that  city  to 
New  Orleans.      But   volunteers  were    found   for  the 

83 


In  Spanish    Colonial   Days 

perilous  journey,  and  three  nuns,  whose  ages  ranged 
from  thirty  to  forty,  came  to  aid  their  New  Orleans 
sisters,  "a  precious  acquisition"  which  all  received  as 
"a  boon  from  heaven."  Three  Ursulines,  driven  from 
Boston  in  1834,  took  refuge  with  the  New  Orleans 
nuns,  to  whom  they  rendered  important  services.  One 
of  these  ladies,  Irish  by  birth,  still  (1887)  lives. 

The  nuns  built  in  1821  a  spacious  monastery  three 
miles  from  the  city,  capable  of  accommodating  four  or 
five  hundred  pupils.  To  this  they  removed,*  without 
ceremony  of  any  kind,  in  the  vacation  of  1824.  Three 
nuns  and  a  novice  took  up  their  abode  in  it  July  26th. 
Two  weeks  later  several  other  Sisters  and  the  boarders 
followed,  the  Superior  and  some  others  remaining  in 
the  city  till  the  closing  of  the  day-school  in  Septem- 
ber. The  early  dwellers  in  the  new  home  had  many 
privations ;  having  no  cooking  apparatus,  their  meals 
were  sent  from  the  old  house.  Once  their  caterer  did 
not  come  till  evening,  nor  was  his  arrival  a  source 
of  much  comfort.  He  presented  only  empty  dishes, 
his  cart  having  upset  on  the  way.  Even  at  this 
late  date,  depredations  by  Indians  in  the  suburbs 
of  the  city  were  not  unknown,  and  the  nuns  were 
so  much  afraid  that  they  could  not  sleep.  Finally, 
one  of  the  bravest.  Sister  Marie  Olivier,  offered  to  keep 
watch  while    the   others  slept.      But  neither  Indians 

*One  of  the  nuns  had  not  been  outside  her  cloister  since  her 
entrance,  in  1760.  This  aged  lady  was  overcome  with  tears  and 
emotion  when  obliged  to  pass  beyond  the  grille  on  the  way  to 
her  new  home  in  1824, 

83 


Education   in  Louisiana 

nor  other  robbers  made  their  appearance  in  her  hours 
of  patrol.  She  was  kept  busy  chasing  rats,  which  ran 
in  every  direction  making  dreadful  noises.  For  two 
months  the  nuns  had  Mass  on  Sundays  only,  Mon- 
seigneur  Dubourg  himself  officiating  as  their  chaplain 
and  director.  The  community  then  (1824)  numbered 
twenty,  two  of  whom  are  still  living  (1886). 

Bishops  Dubourg,  Rosati,  De  Neckere,  and  Blanc 
are  mentioned  with  grateful  affection  in  the  Ursuline 
records.  They  never  left  the  city  without  paying 
farewell  visits  to  the  Sisters  and  begging  their 
prayers.  And  on  their  return  they  would  at  once 
call  on  them.  Their  visits  were  frequent  and  most 
paternal.  Ceremonious  receptions  were  given  them 
only  on  their  feasts.  Within  the  convent  they  were 
as  fathers  in  the  midst  of  their  families.  The  pupils 
would  continue  their  games  before  them,  or  gather 
around  them  to  hear  their  amiable  words.  Bishop  De 
Neckere  used  regularly  to  give  the  Religious  lessons 
in  astronomy,  philosophy,  chemistry,  and  natural 
history.  He  took  the  greatest  delight  in  instructing 
those  scholars  who  corresponded  by  their  intelligence 
and  application  to  his  paternal  devotion. 

The  French,  Spanish,  and  early  American  govern- 
ors paid  the  Ursulines  ceremonious  visits  at  stated 
times,  and  any  cause  of  complaint  they  referred  to 
these  gentlemen  was  immediately  removed.  When 
Louisiana  became  a  State  in  18 12,  and  Claiborne,  who 
had  governed  by  appointment  since  1804,  was  elected 
governor,  he    and    all  officials    under  him,   especially 

84 


hi    Spain's//    Colonial    Days 

his  Secretary  of  State,  MacCarthy,  show  cd  them  every 
possible  courtesy.  Apart  from  the  troubles  of  the 
Church,  which  were  a  keen  source  of  grief  to  these 
good  Religious,  a  long  era  of  peace  and  prosperity 
began  for  them  with  Claiborne's  administration. 
Johnson  was  the  last  governor  who  paid  them  an 
of^cial  visit  and  a  New  Year's  call,  in  1828.  Jackson 
visited  them  the  same  year.  Though  men  of  French 
descent  and  men  of  the  lineage  of  O'Reilly  and 
O'Farrell  have  since  occupied  the  high  position  of 
chief  magistrate  of  this  State,  the  courtesies  shown 
the  nuns  by  the  earlier  governors  have  been  discon- 
tinued since  1828. 

Madame  Duchesne,  of  the  Sacred  Heart  Order, 
who  came  to  New  Orleans  in  18 18,  and  shared  the 
generous  hospitality  of  the  Ursulines,  says  they  edu- 
cated nearly  all  the  girls  in  Louisiana.  She  found  in 
the  convent  almost  three  hundred  boarders  receiving 
a  Christian  education,  besides  many  negrcsscs  and 
niulattrcsses  who  assembled  for  catechism  every  even- 
ing. "  The  blacks,"  she  writes,  "  gather  around  Abbe 
Martial  (the  convent  chaplain)  with  the  fervor  of  the 
early  Christians  gathering  about  St.  Peter,  and  when 
the  signal  gun  obliges  them  to  withdraw,  they  com- 
plain of  not  being  allowed  to  remain  all  night  at  their 
pious  exercises."  This  is  not  the  description  com- 
monly given  of  the  black  and  yellow  people,  the 
quadroons  and  octoroons,  by  those  who  have  never 
read  their  secret  history  in  the  letters  and  diaries 
of  the  Religious  who  labored  among  them,  and  who 

85 


Educatio7i  in  Louisiana 

would  have  us  believe  that  all  the  Africans  spent  their 
evenings  in  the  wild  and  terrible  orgies  of  Congo 
square. 

Madame  Duchesne,  who  had  been  a  Visitation  nun 
before  the  Revolution,  was  charmed  with  her  sojourn 
among  the  daughters  of  St.  Ursula,  as  nuns  still  living 
who  were  boarders  in  i8i8  can  testify.  Without  the 
walls  she  found  little  to  console  her.  There  were  but 
two  priests  in  a  city  of  15,000  souls.  Including  the 
chaplains  of  convent,  barracks,  and  hospitals,  there 
never  had  been  less  than  seven  priests  of  various 
nationalities  on  duty  in  New  Orleans  during  the  Span- 
ish domination,  all  being  paid  by  the  king  of  Spain. 
O'Reilly  considered  eighteen  priests  necessary  for  the 
spiritual  wants  of  the  Louisiana  *  of  his  day.  The  Sacred 
Heart  nun  speaks  disparagingly  of  the  state  of  morals 
where  she  had  expected  to  find  only  "  primitive  fami- 
lies, simple,  innocent,  and  pure."  The  Louisiana  girls 
did  not  edify  her,  yet  her  companion,  Madame  Aude, 
wrote  a  little  later :  "The  children  are  obedient  and 
have  excellent  manners."  First  impressions  of  new 
countries  are  often  misleading,  because  exaggerated. 
Vice  is  bold  and  readily  leaps  to  the  surface  ;  virtue  is 
modest  and  too  often  timid.  There  was  more  good  in 
New  Orleans  than  could  be  seen  at  a  glance,  and  had 
Madame  Duchesne  labored  a  few  years  in  the  city  her 
views  would  have  been  considerably  modified.  The 
beautiful  devotion  to  the  Sacred  Heart  had  been  in- 

*The  population   of  Louisiana  in   O'Reilly's  day  was   over 
thirteen  thousand. 

86 


In  Spanish    Colonial   Days 

troduced  by  the  Ursulines,  and  Madame  Duchesne 
mentions  a  picture  of  that  divine  object  in  the  sanctu- 
ary and  a  book  of  "  Devotions  to  the  Sacred  Heart  of 
Jesus"  published  in  New  Orleans.  The  Ursulines 
lavished  on  this  good  woman  and  her  five  companions 
the  most  delicate  attentions,  and  provided  them  with 
comforts  and  even  luxuries.  On  leaving  for  St.  Louis, 
in  July,  1818,  the  Sacred  Heart  Sisters  received  from 
their  generous  hostesses  a  gift  of  1,500  francs.  Almost 
all  the  Religious  who  have  since  settled  in  New  Or- 
leans have  received  hospitality  and  kindness  from  the 
Ursuline  nuns.  They  were  formerly  wealthy  and  gave 
freely  of  their  abundance.  Poverty  was  almost  un- 
known in  New  Orleans  before  the  Civil  War,  from 
which  the  Ursulines  suffered  more  severely  than  any 
kindred  institution.  Nor  have  they  yet  regained  their 
former  prosperity.  While  the  teachers  have  never 
lost  their  high  literary  reputation,  it  is  sad  to  think 
that  their  pupils  are  now  counted  by  tens  where  they 
were  once  hundreds. 

The  archives  of  this  oldest  monastery  in  the  United 
States  contain  instances  of  heroism  in  its  early  teach- 
ers which  find  their  counterparts  only  in  the  Lives  of 
the  Saints. 

There  was  Sister  Farjon.  Born  at  Avignon  of  pi- 
ous parents,  she  was  attracted  in  girlhood  to  the 
pleasures  of  the  world.  Being  sent  at  fifteen  to  the 
Ursulines,  her  heart,  under  their  judicious  training, 
turned  entirely  to  God,  and  she  showed  the  germs  of 
the  excellent  Qualities  that  blossomed  and  bore  fruit 

87 


Education   in  Louisiana 

in  after  life.  Her  mind  was  most  penetrating,  and  she 
worked  successfully  to  overcome  the  difificulties  one 
experiences  at  that  age  whose  early  education  has 
been  neglected.  At  sixteen  she  entered  the  novitiate. 
Humility  and  obedience  were  her  favorite  virtues  and 
the  hidden  life  of  Christ  in  God  her  peculiar  attrac- 
tion. Her  gayety,  her  obliging  and  gentle  manners 
won  her  the  love  of  all.  Her  great  talent  was  for  teach- 
ing the  young,  whom  she  made  excellent  scholars  and 
trained  to  the  practice  of  solid  virtue.  She  had  a 
strong  desire  for  the  foreign  mission,  and  in  response 
to  an  invitation  from  the  Superioress  of  New  Orleans, 
made  known  to  her  by  an  old  Jesuit  who  had  spent 
twelve  years  evangelizing  the  Indians  of  lower  Louisi- 
ana, Sister  Xavier,  with  two  young  Religious,  set  out 
for  New  Orleans  in  1786.  Here  she  divided  her  at- 
tention between  the  slaves  and  the  scholars.  But  it 
was  in  the  office  of  Superior,  which  she  held  twelve 
years,  that  her  virtues  shone  with  greatest  lustre.  To 
her  fell  the  difficult  task  of  building  up  the  Order 
after  the  departure  of  the  Spanish  Sisters.  Like  most 
of  the  early  members,  she  worked  on  to  the  last. 
Seeing  her  end  approaching,  she  comforted  her  sorrow- 
ing children,  bade  them  be  of  good  cheer  and  not  leave 
New  Orleans,  for  God  would  send  them  help,  which 
came  to  pass  as  she  had  predicted.  She  died  in  the 
odor  of  sanctity,  March  10,  1810. 

There  was  Felicite  Alzas,  who  left  the  world  before 
she  knew  its  vanity  and  entered  the  Ursuline  Convent, 
where  "she  trod  the  paths  of  perfection  with  the  steps 

88 


/;/   Spa/iish    Colonial   Days 

of  a  giant."  In  1786  she  came  with  two  other  nuns  to 
the  aid  of  New  Orleans  from  France.  The  French 
archives  say  they  were  coldly  received  by  the  Spanish 
Ursulines,  who  placed  them  in  the  lowest  grade,  and 
even  counseled  them  to  return.  But  this  was  prob- 
ably because  they  could  not  receive  French  women 
without  leave  of  the  King  of  Spain.  This  was  ob- 
tained by  an  old  Jesuit  friend  who,  not  wishing  the 
New  Orleans  house  to  lose  such  promising  subjects, 
wrote  to  the  Catholic  king  in  their  behalf.  His  Ma- 
jesty immediately  ordered  Bishop  Cirilo  to  have  them 
admitted  as  full  members,  which  was  done  in  Novem- 
ber, 1786.  If  Mother  Ramos  felt  any  coldness  towards 
Sister  Alzas,  it  soon  vanished,  for  her  natural  acuteness 
showed  her  what  a  treasure  the  house  possessed  in 
her.  After  filling  all  the  other  offices.  Mother  Alzas 
became  Superior  in  1827,  at  the  age  of  seventy-five. 
Happy  by  nature  as  by  name,  she  was  all  goodness  to 
her  daughters,  and  it  was  admirable  to  see  her,  despite 
her  great  age,  taking  part  in  all  their  little  amuse- 
ments. She  had  a  special  love  for  the  sick,  and  might 
be  seen  every  evening,  lantern  in  hand,  visiting  them 
to  assure  herself  they  wanted  nothing.  This  holy  nun 
preserved  her  faculties  to  the  last,  and  could  read  the 
finest  print  by  candlelight  without  glasses.  It  is  said 
that  she  asked  and  obtained  of  St.  Joachim  the  grace 
of  never  falling  into  dotage. 

The  nuns  were  never  weary  of  extolling  the  char- 
ity and  humility  of  Mother  Felicite.  Her  maternal 
goodness  drew  subjects  to  the   house.     She   loved  to 

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Education  in  Louisiana 

replace  any  Sister  that  might  be  absent  from  a  duty, 
to  help  at  sweeping  the  dormitory  and  ironing  the 
clothes.  Children  and  ignorant  people  had  a  particu- 
lar attraction  for  her.  She  sacrificed  to  them  her 
time  and  her  rest.  The  venerable  Mother  had  great 
conformity  to  the  will  of  God.  And  when  several 
young  Religious  were  describing  their  ardent  desires 
of  perfection,  after  hearing  them  patiently,  she  said : 
"And  I,  my  children,  desire  no  more  love  of  God,  no 
more  of  any  virtue,  than  He  pleases  to  give  me."  To 
a  nun  who  expressed  surprise  at  her  joyousness  under 
afflictions  she  said  :  "  For  a  long  time,  my  daughter, 
my  soul  has  been  established  in  peace,  and  nothing 
can  trouble  it."  Her  fifty  years'  residence  in  New  Or- 
leans had  been  singularly  checkered — she  saw  the 
dreadful  conflagrations  (1788  and  1794)  that  left  thou- 
sands homeless;  the  hurricane  that  desolated  the  city 
in  August,  1795  ;  the  revolt  of  the  negroes,  who,  ex- 
cited by  the  success  of  the  San  Domingo  revolution, 
conspired  to  butcher  all  the  whites  in  the  colony,*  but 
worst  of  all,  the  schism  that  all  but  ruined  religion  in 
Louisiana.  The  death  of  Charles  HI.  was  a  loss  to 
the  nuns,  and  it  was  in  their  chapel,  as  the  parish 
church  had  recently  been  burned,  that  grand  funeral 
rites  were  held  in  his  honor,  and  a  solemn  Requiem 
celebrated  for  the  repose  of  his  soul.  May  7,  1789. 
Like  other  favored  souls.  Mother  Alzas  was  tried   in 

♦After  this,  the  importation  of  slaves  into  Louisiana  was  pro- 
hibited, the  Cabildo  having  petitioned  the  King  of  Spain  to  that 
eflFect. 

90 


In   Spanish    Colonial   Days 

many  ways,  but  she  joyfully  drank  the  chalice  of  afflic- 
tion. In  1 796  yellow  fever  for  the  first  time  ravaged  the 
city,*  and  though  the  nuns  escaped,  they  had  much 
to  suffer  from  the  consequences  of  the  plague.  This 
good  mother  despised  the  pains  of  this  life,  having  her 
heart  set  on  the  glories  of  eternity.  Such  was  her 
reputation  for  sanctity  that  she  was  honored  at  home 
and  abroad,  and  consulted  by  many  on  delicate  matters 
of  conscience.  She  loved  to  instruct  and  console  the 
slaves,  to  whom  she  was  a  kind  mother.  Her  last  ill- 
ness lasted  but  a  few  hours.  She  resigned  herself  en- 
tirely into  the  hands  of  God.  To  the  Sisters,  whom 
she  had  loved  and  served  so  faithfully,  she  said  :  "  Do 
as  you  please  with  me."  She  died  October  13,  1835, 
in  the  eighty-sixth  year  of  her  age,  having  spent 
seventy  years  in  religion. 

There  was  the  musical  Mother  de  la  Clotte,  whose 
songs  resound  through  her  sweet  story.  Born  at 
Montpellier  of  a  highly  distinguished  family,  she  was 
imprisoned  during  the  Revolution,  and  made  herself 
the  slave  of  her  fellow-captives.  When  set  free  the 
fair  girl  sought  to  bury  her  beauty  and  mental  gifts  in 
a  cloister,  and  for  this  end  came  to  New  Orleans  in 
1789,  via  Baltimore,  where  Bishop  Carroll  detained 
her  till  December  21st,  "  on  account  of  the  heat."  She 
was  specially  devoted  to  the   duty  of  teaching,  and 

*The  Intendant,  Morales,  remarks  that  the  yellow  fever  se- 
lected Flemish,  English,  and  Americans  for  its  victims,  and  spared 
Spaniards  and  blacks.  There  has  never  been  a  case  of  yellow  fever 
among  the  Ursulines. 

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Education   in   Louisiana 

though  a  lover  of  silence  and  recollection,  she  could 
not  bear  to  be  absent  from  her  beloved  schools,  even 
when  Superior.  It  was  believed  that  this  saintly 
woman  never  lost  her  baptismal  innocence.  She  died 
after  a  few  days'  illness,  December  20,  1827. 

There  was  Mother  Gensoul,  a  saintly  girl  in  the 
world,  a  saintly  nun  in  the  cloister.  In  1792  she  had 
to  fly  ;  the  most  stormy  years  of  this  dark  period  she 
spent  with  her  relatives.  With  another  Ursuline, 
Sophie  Ricard,  who  had  been  reared  a  Protestant,  but 
converted  by  seeing  the  profession  of  a  nun,  she 
opened  a  school  at  Montpellier,  and  both  followed 
their  vocation  as  well  as  they  could  during  the  Reign 
of  Terror.  In  18 10  she  desired  to  join  the  New  Or- 
leans Ursulines,  now  reduced  to  seven,  but  her  Bishop 
would  not  allow  her.  She  referred  her  case  to  the 
Pope,  who,  himself,  deigned  to  calm  her  perplexity. 
December  31,  18 10,  she  reached  New  Orleans,  hav- 
ing been  detained  over  the  sickly  season  in  Baltimore 
by  Dr.  Carroll.  As  the  nuns  heard  her  carriage  lum- 
bering up  the  narrow  street  towards  their  convent, 
they  felt  that  her  coming  was  a  realization  of  the  com- 
forting prophecy  of  Mother  Farjon. 

The  good  Mother  now  resumed  the  religious  habit 
she  had  been  compelled  to  put  off  eighteen  years  be- 
fore. Her  graciousness  and  affability  charmed  every- 
one, particularly  the  young.  She  had  a  tender  devo- 
tion to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus,  which  was  increased 
by  a  miraculous  dream,  in  which  she  seemed  to  see  this 
Heart  burning  with  love   for  men,  adored  by  angels 

92 


In   Spanish    Colonial    Days 

who  were  as  nothing  in  His  presence;  a  little  above 
was  the  Eternal  Father  under  the  appearance  of  an  old 
man.  Struck  with  astonishment,  she  resolved  to  paint 
what  she  had  seen,  and  the  result  of  her  labors  was 
placed  within  the  sanctuary. 

Mother  Gensoul  had  a  lively  devotion  to  Our  Lady 
of  Prompt  Succor.  Before  the  battle  of  New  Orleans 
she  made  a  vow  to  have  a  solemn  Mass  of  thanksgiv- 
ing every  year  if  God  would  give  victory  to  General 
Jackson.  The  statue  of  Our  Lady  of  Prompt  Succor 
was  placed  on  the  altar  while  Abbe  Dubourg  offered 
the  Holy  Sacrifice  to  the  God  of  armies,  begging  Him 
to  deliver  the  city  from  the  threatened  danger. 
Women  and  children  joined  in  his  supplications;  the 
fathers  and  sons  were  all  on  the  battle-field. 

To  this  day  a  solemn  Mass  is  sung  every  year  in 
the  Ursuline  chapel  on  the  eighth  of  January,  which 
is  a  legal  holiday,  and  a  hymn  composed  by  Mother 
Gensoul  is  sung  after  Mass,  "  because,"  say  the  chron- 
icles, "  a  great  army  commanded  by  generals  proud  of 
their  ability  was  cut  in  pieces,  while  on  the  American 
side  six  only  were  killed  and  seven  wounded."  Years, 
sorrows,  and  labors  at  length  told  upon  the  iron  con- 
stitution of  Mother  Gensoul.  To  Bishop  Dubourg, 
who  entered  the  infirmary  just  before  her  death,  she 
spoke  her  last  words:  "I  thirst."  "Yes,  Mother," 
said  he,  "  but  it  is  for  God  !  "  "  O  God,  my  God,"  she 
murmured,  "  I  thirst  for  Thee.  How  lovely  are  Thy 
tabernacles!  My  soul  longeth  and  fainteth  after  the 
courts  of  my  God."     This  apostolic  woman,  teacher 

93 


Education  in  Louisiana 

of  youth,  friend  and  mother  of  Indians,  negroes,  and 
slaves,  passed  from  earth,  March  19,  1822,  aged  over 
seventy  years. 

There  were  Mothers  Coskery,  Ray,  O'Keeffe,  and 
others ;  but  we  must  here  close  the  edifying  record, 
merely  remarking  that  Mother  O'Keeffe  still  lives 
(1887),  and,  though  an  octogenarian  and  in  failing 
health,  is  a  most  saintly,  charming,  and  accomplished 
woman,  with  whom  it  is  a  treat  to  converse. 

Once,  when  bound  for  the  bright  southern  seas, 
we  glided  past  the  lower  horn  of  the  river's  crescent 
in  the  blaze  and  brilliancy  of  noontide.  The  sweet, 
soft  breeze,  laden  with  the  odor  of  lilies,  and  the 
aroma  of  the  white-starred  orange  tree  and  the  pink 
oleander,  scarcely  ruffled  the  glassy  waters  that  re- 
flected the  changeful  sky.  The  landscape  reposing  in 
the  luminous  atmosphere  was  exquisitely  peaceful. 
Rising  out  of  the  river,  embowered  in  fresh,  green 
shrubbery,  is  a  huge  white  pile  whose  windows  in- 
numerable look  out  on  blooming  meadows,  giant  oaks, 
fields  of  maize  and  sugar  cane,  mirrored  in  the  yellow 
river.  What  bewitching  combinations  of  light  and 
shade,  of  blue  sky,  old-gold  waters,  pale-green  leafage, 
and  blossoms  of  every  hue.  A  sylvan  paradise,  the 
beauty  of  which  we  have  no  words  to  depict,  sur- 
rounds the  Ursuline  Convent.  We  have  gazed  upon 
the  scene  when  the  moonbeams  quivered  on  the 
foliage,  and  made  fantastic  figures  as  they  played 
among  the  ancient  trees,  silvering  the  whole,  by  their 
magic  touches,  into  dreamy,  indescribable  loveliness. 

94 


In   Spanish    Colonial   Days 

How  many  associations  has  the  Mississippi  for 
the  inmates  of  that  convent  since  it  bore  their  ances- 
tresses in  religion  to  this  fertile  spot.  Where  are  the 
gentle  Sisters,  the  ardent  priests,  the  mailed  warriors, 
who  came  hither  with  chivalrous  promptitude  to  win 
souls  to  the  good  God?  From  their  belvideres  the 
Religious  of  to-day  can  look  into  the  depths  of  the 
river  on  which  their  predecessors  shed  such  a  glamour 
of  poetry  and  romance.  Where  are  they  now?  Do 
the  ancient  nuns  never  see  phantom  boats,  guided  by 
the  spirits  of  the  great  ones  of  old,  moving  over  its 
fair  bosom  in  the  dusky  twilight  or  the  white  moon- 
light? 

Alas!  all  —  even  the  "faithless  phantoms,"  and  the 
pale  ghosts,  and  the  fair  wraiths,  have  departed.  But 
the  deeds  of  daring,  of  brave  men,  and  the  gentle 
virtues  of  saintly  women,  and  the  sweet  lights  of 
holiness,  have  cast  a  halo  around  the  old  place  and 
glorified  it  forever. 

The  place  remains  while  those  who  gave  it  undy- 
ing interest  have  passed  away.  Yet  the  walls  still 
echo  sweet  children's  voices,  and  the  song  of  the 
cloistered  virgins  is  heard  by  angels,  if  not  by  men, 
and  the  old  white  monastery  looks  out  forever  from 
its  leafy  bowers  on  the  eddying,  whispering  river. 


95 


THE    CHURCH    OF   THE    ATTAKAPAS  — 
1 750- 1 889 

I 

Jbout  6  A.M.,  August  16,  1887,  Pere  Jan,  Pas- 
tor of  St.  Martinsville,  was  found  dead  in 
his  poor,  dusty  room.  He  had  retired  at 
nine  the  previous  night  to  pray  rather  than  to  rest, 
though  a  man  far  up  in  the  eighties  might  well  have 
been  weary  after  so  full  a  day.  He  had  celebrated 
two  Masses  and  preached  at  each,  heard  many  con- 
fessions, given  Holy  Communion  to  the  greater  num- 
ber of  his  congregation,  presided  at  Vespers,  and 
held  the  Blessed  Sacrament  aloft  over  his  people,  for 
the  last  time,  in  solemn  benediction.  He  lay  against 
the  bed  partially  kneeling  —  had  not  even  undressed. 
The  peaceful,  smiling  expression  of  his  venerable 
countenance  showed  that  the  beautiful  soul  had  de- 
parted without  a  struggle.  The  doctor  declared  he 
must  have  died  some  seven  hours  previous.  So  the 
Blessed  Virgin  had  taken  him  on  her  greatest  feast. 

His  death  was  telegraphed  to  New  Orleans,  and 
people  asked  each  other:  "Who  is  this  Pere  Jan?" 
Save  a  few  of  the  clergy,  nobody  seemed  to  know  or 
care.  He  had  lived  between  the  porch  and  the  altar; 
had  never  been  in  the  city  save  in  passing  on  his 
arrival   in   this   country,  thirty-seven   years   previous. 

96 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

To  his  simple  flock  he  was  all  the  world,  but  other- 
wise his  life  was  as  solitary  as  if  he  had  lived  in  the 
Thebaid. 

Yet  the  old  priest  who  lay  dead  in  St.  Martinsville 
had  seen  stirring  times.  He  had  lived  through  the 
latter  years  of  the  first  French  Republic  ;  remembered 
the  fleeting  glory  of  the  great  Napoleon's  empire ; 
shared  the  anxiety  of  the  Hundred  Days;  and  rejoiced 
like  a  loyal  Breton,  as  he  was,  at  the  restoration  of  the 
Bourbons  and  monarchy. 

Ordained  May  26,  1826,  by  Archbishop  de  Quelen, 
at  Notre  Dame,  with  sixty  others,  among  whom  was 
Archbishop  Purcell,  of  Cincinnati,  he  said  his  first 
Mass  on  Trinity  Sunday  at  the  Convent  des  Carmes, 
memorable  as  the  scene  of  the  massacre  of  so  many 
priests  in  1792.  The  Abbe  Surrat,  his  intimate  friend, 
who  attended  him,  lived  to  witness  scenes  scarcely 
less  horrible  than  those  of  1792,  and  became  the  victim 
of  another  massacre,  second  in  atrocity  only  to  that 
of  the  Cannes,  when  he  was  assassinated  by  the  Com- 
munists in  the  fair  city  by  the  Seine  forty-five  years 
later. 

On  the  return  of  Charles  X.  from  Rheims,  Pere 
Jan  acted  as  chief  of  the  viditres  de  edrcDionics  at  the 
grand  Te  Dcuin  at  Notre  Dame.  Often  did  the 
simple  priest  in  far-away  St.  Martinsville  smile  to 
think  that  he,  on  so  great  an  occasion,  had  given  the 
order  laisser  passer  to  so  many  distinguished  person- 
ages, among  others  his  friend,  Mgr.  de  Frayssinous, 
Minister  of  Public  Instruction.  A  few  years  later  he 
7  97 


The    Church  of'  the  Attakapas 

saw  the  flight  of  the  same  Charles,  that  typical  Bour- 
bon, who  could  neither  learn  nor  forget. 

He  had  been  the  friend  or  fellow-student  of  nearly 
all  the  churchmen  of  the  Paris  of  his  day,  and  among 
them  all  loved  Lacordaire  best. 

It  was  the  apostolic  life  of  this  holy  priest  that 
first  drew  the  attention  of  the  writer  to  the  remote 
region  blessed  and  sanctified  by  his  labors.  We  shall 
return  to  this  latest  and  greatest  Apostle  of  the  Atta- 
kapas. 

II 

South  Carolina  is  divided  into  districts,  Louisi- 
ana into  parishes ;  the  divisions  of  the  other  States 
are  counties.  Five  Louisiana  parishes  cover  the  an- 
cient Attakapas  country  :  St.  Martin,  St.  Mary,  Iberia, 
Lafayette,  and  Vermillion,  lying  between  the  Mississ- 
ippi and  the  Mexican  Gulf,  Ecclesiastically,  the 
Attakapas  region  once  formed  but  a  single  parish,  ex- 
tending from  Grand  Coteau  to  Berwick  Bay,  and 
from  the  Atchafalaya  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  an  area 
of  some  thousands  of  square  miles.  A  commandant 
ruled  this  fair  country,  politically  known  as  the  "  Poste 
des  Attakapas." 

Into  these  green  savannas  white  men  found  their 
way  very  early.  The  first  permanent  settlers  were  a 
few  families  driven  from  Canada  by  the  English. 
Their  descendants  are  scattered  over  the  wilds  of 
Louisiana  to-day.  Some  settled  at  the  "  Poste  des 
Attakapas,"   as  the  Broussards,   Martins,   Le  Blancs, 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

Voorhies,  Arcenaux,  still  numerously  represented  in 
St.  Martinsville  and  its  vicinity.  Some  New  Orleans 
men,  more  adventurous  than  their  brethren,  "  pros- 
pected"  in  these  prairies,  and  a  few  settled  down, 
"the  world  forgetting  and  by  the  world  forgot,"  with 
Indian  brides,  whose  dark  eyes  and  swarthy  complex- 
ions may  be  traced  in  their  descendants  to-day.  The 
traditions  of  the  country  assert  that  the  first  of  these 
migrations  occurred  between  1750  and  1760,  during 
the  administration  of  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil  and 
Governor  Kerlerec. 

The  immense  plains,  stretching  to  the  Gulf,  afforded 
such  facilities  for  raising  cattle  that  the  immigrants 
chose  a  pastoral  rather  than  an  agricultural  life.  Bay- 
ous of  pure,  limpid  water  furnished  delicious  fish,  and 
game  was  abundant.  Much  of  their  time  was  there- 
fore spent  in  hunting  and  fishing.  But  the  extraordi- 
nary richness  of  the  soil,  which  yields  several  crops  a 
year,  did  not  long  remain  undiscovered.  Indigo,  cot- 
ton, rice,  and  tobacco  soon  varied  the  green  monotony 
of  these  fertile  pampas.  Sugar  cane  was  introduced 
by  the  Jesuits  in  175 1,  and  seed  cane  distributed 
throughout  the  various  plantations.  This  made  a 
great  addition  to  home  comfort.  But  in  1795  sugar 
became  a  gold  mine  to  Louisiana,  when  the  syrup  the 
cane  yields  was  made  to  granulate  on  Bore's  plantation 
near  New  Orleans.*     This  was  a  boon  to  the  dwellers 

♦Etienne  de  Bore,  a  wealthy,  influential  planter,  signalized 
himself  by  his  humanity  and  charity  to  the  Jesuits  when  they  were 
suppressed  in  Louisiana,  1763.     It  was  he  who  gave  a  home  to  the 

99 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

in  the  Attakapas.  Nowhere  are  there  finer  sugar  plan- 
tations than  on  the  banks  of  the  Teche. 

The  first  pale-faces  who  arrived  here  found  Atta- 
kapas Indians  scattered  throughout  the  territory. 
They  had  given  up  the  man-eating  propensities  from 
which  they  took  their  name,  and  tradition  assures  us 
that  there  were  among  them  many  Christians. 

By  an  arrangement,  the  wisdom  of  w'hich  has  been 
often  questioned,  the  Capuchins  of  the  Province  of 
Champagne  attended  to  the  spiritual  wants  of  New 
Orleans,  while  the  Jesuits  preached  the  Gospel  to  the 
outlying  Indian  tribes.  So,  when  the  adventurous 
Canadians  pushed  westward  to  the  Tfeche  country, 
they  found  the  Indians  partially  Christianized  and 
civilized.  One  Jesuit  preached  to  them  in  their  na- 
tive wilds, —  Father  Viel,*  who,  besides  his   ministra- 

venerable  Father  Baudoinn,  S.  J.,  a  Canadian,  whose  health  was 
irretrievably  broken  by  his  labors  and  suflferings  among  the  Indians. 
He  would  not  allow  the  holy  missionary  to  be  driven,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-two,  from  the  country  in  which  the  greater  part  of  his  life 
had  been  spent.  Mr.  de  Bore  was  grandfather  to  Charles  Gay- 
arre,  the  historian  of  Louisiana. 

*  Etienne  Bernard  Alexandre  Viel  was  born  in  New  Orleans 
in  1736,  and  died  in  France  in  his  eighty-sixth  year.  After  the 
suppression  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  he  lived  for  many  years  in 
Attakapas,  where  he  was  much  beloved.  The  greater  part  of  his 
life  was  spent  in  teaching.  Many  considered  him  the  greatest 
living  Latinist.  Judge  Gayarre  told  the  writer  that  he  was  a  fana- 
tic in  his  love  for  Latin,  and  thought  nothing  fit  to  be  published 
except  whatwas  in  Latin.  He  translated  Telemachus  into  beauti- 
ful Latin  verse,  and  the  work  was  splendidly  brought  out  by  some 
distinguished  men  who  had  been  his  pupils.  Gayarre, in  his  youth, 
saw  that  work  and  others  from  the  same  learned  pen. 

100 


The    Chin'cli   of  the   Attakapas 

tions  to  them,  taught  a  school  for  the  children   of  the 
dwellers  in  this  romantic  region. 

Ill 

Even  in  the  days  of  Bienville,  who  left  America 
forever  in  1747,  the  Attakapas  and  the  pale-faces  had 
met.  The  romantic  story  of  Belle-Isle  is  repeated  to- 
day under  the  spreading  oaks  that  fringe  the  sparkling 
bayous,  and  by  the  hunters  and  fishers  of  the  Salt 
Marsh  Parishes.  In  17 19  he  sailed  from  France  with 
many  troops  and  emigrants.  Losing  their  reckoning 
in  a  storm,  they  made  land  at  St.  Bernard's  Bay, 
Texas.  The  captain  sent  ashore  for  fresh  water. 
Belle-Isle  and  four  other  of^cers  remained  on  land 
when  the  boat  went  back  with  her  casks  replenished. 
While  awaiting  their  return  for  a  second  cargo  the 
loiterers  found  so  much  to  interest  them  that  time 
passed  quickly,  and  on  reaching  the  shore  they  saw  to 
their  dismay  that  the  vessel  had  departed. 

The  unfortunate  men  found  they  had  exchanged 
the  perils  of  the  ocean  for  those  of  the  wilderness. 
They  hoped,  but  in  vain,  that  the  captain  might  send 
a  boat  back  for  them.  The  keen  gnawings  of  hunger 
they  stayed  with  berries,  worms,  and  insects.  Belle- 
Isle's  hunting  dog  was  doomed,  but  he  could  not  slay 
it,  and  the  poor  animal  escaped  when  another  essayed 
to  do  the  deed. 

One  by  one  his  companions  died  of  hunger.  He 
buried  them  and  "  watered  their  grave  with  his  tears." 
After  the  burial  of  the  last,  his  truant  dog  returned 

lOI 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

with  a  wood-rat,  which  gave  master  and  dog  a  dainty 
meal.  Once,  while  his  master  slept,  a  panther  stealthily 
approached  him,  which  the  dog  attacked  and  van- 
quished, but  was  so  badly  lacerated  that  his  master 
compassionately  put  an  end  to  his  sufferings. 

Again  alone  in  the  wilds,  Belle-Isle  reverently 
knelt  to  thank  God  for  his  safety,  and  implore  His 
further  protection.  By  traces  of  human  footprints  he 
was  guided  to  a  pirogue  tossing  in  a  stream.  Cross- 
ing to  the  other  side,  he  saw  Indians  feasting.  They 
were  man-eaters  (Attukapaw).  The  cadaverous  French- 
man they  regarded  as  a  spectre.  He  made  signs  that 
he  was  hungry,  whereupon  they  offered  him  human 
flesh  and  fish.     No  need  to  say  he  chose  the  latter. 

The  Indians  spared  his  life,  intending  to  fatten 
him  for  a  barbecue.  They  took  him  to  their  village 
and  appropriated  his  miserable  belongings.  He  was 
made  slave  to  a  widowed  squaw,  who  treated  him 
well,  and  whose  papooses  he  aired  in  a  cradle  fastened 
to  his  bare  shoulders.  The  prospect  of  being  sacri- 
ficed to  their  deities,  and  having  his  flesh  served  up 
at  their  revels,  retarded  his  improvement.  He  soon 
acquired  their  language  and  had  the  happiness  to 
learn  that  the  warriors  in  council  assembled  had 
decided  it  would  be  base  and  treacherous  to  kill  a 
stranger  who  had  come  to  their  wigwams  for  hospi- 
tality. 

His  mistress  allowed  him  considerable  liberty.  He 
accompanied  the  braves  on  their  hostile  excursions. 
Human  flesh  and  venison  were  the  delicacies  prepared 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

for  these  expeditions.  Once,  when  he  unwittingly 
ate  a  piece  of  dried  human  flesh,  the  savage  commis- 
sary said:  "You  improve.  You  will  soon  be  a  true 
Attakapas,  and  'eat  man'  as  well  as  any  of  us."  This, 
with  the  powerful  aid  of  the  imagination,  brought 
about  an  inversion  of  the  muscles  of  the  epigastric 
region;  a  violent  upheaval  and  the  loss  of  a  dinner 
followed. 

After  some  years,  deputies  from  a  distant  tribe 
came  to  smoke  the  calumet  with  the  cannibals.  See- 
ing Belle-Isle,  they  remarked  that  there  were  pale- 
faces in  a  neighboring  nation  also.  He  questioned 
them.  Fortunately  he  had  preserved  his  commission 
as  an  oflficer.  On  the  reverse  of  it  he  wrote  with  a 
crow-quill  and  ink  manufactured  from  soot : 

"  I  am  M.  de  Belle-Isle  who  was  adandoned  at  St. 
Bernard's  Bay.  My  companions  died  of  grief  and 
hunger.  I  am  a  captive  among  the  Attakapas."  This 
"talking  paper"  he  begged  an  Indian  to  convey  to 
the  French  Chief  in  New  Orleans,  who  would  liberally 
reward  him.  Another  Indian  tried  to  take  it,  but  he 
escaped  by  swimming  across  the  river,  holding  the 
letter  aloft  that  it  might  not  get  wet.  After  a  journey 
of  150  miles,  he  reached  the  French  post  and  delivered 
it.  On  hearing  it  read,  the  people  wept  aloud  after 
the  manner  of  the  Indians.  Being  asked  what 
troubled  them,  they  said  they  were  grieving  for  their 
brother,  a  prisoner  among  the  Attakapas.  The  In- 
dians offered  to  rescue  him.  Ten  went,  all  well 
mounted.      On   reaching  the  Attakapas  village,  they 

103 


The    Church   of  the  Attakapas 

discharged  their  muskets.  The  savages  took  the  re- 
port for  thunder.  A  letter  to  Belle-Isle  ordered  him 
to  surrender  himself  to  his  red  visitors,  and  his  hosts, 
terrified  by  the  roar  of  musketry,  did  not  dare  to  oppose 
his  abduction.  The  woman  whom  he  had  served  wept 
piteously,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  he  tore  himself 
from  her.  Bienville  richly  rewarded  his  deliverers 
and  sent  a  valuable  present  to  the  Attakapas.  A 
deputation,  which,  to  the  great  delight  of  our  hero, 
included  his  adopted  mother,  came  to  New  Orleans 
to  thank  the  Governor  and  form  an  alliance  with  the 
French.  The  Chief,  pointing  to  the  former  captive, 
said  to  Bienville:  "This  white  man,  my  father,  is  your 
flesh  and  blood,  but  by  adoption  he  is  one  of  us.  His 
brothers  died  of  hunger,  but  had  they  been  met  by 
my  nation  they  would  to-day  be  alive  and  free." 

From  that  period  the  Attakapas  always  treated 
strangers  humanely,  and  gradually  abandoned  their 
barbarous  custom  of  eating  human  flesh. 

The  above  incidents  became  the  occasion  of  send- 
ing missionaries  to  the  friendly  Attakapas.  As  late 
as  1776,  Galvez,  when  preparing  to  do  battle  with  the 
English,  recruited  among  them  and  other  tribes  160 
Indian  warriors.  It  is  noted  that  in  this  campaign 
they  refrained  from  doing  the  slightest  injury  to  the 
fugitives  whom  they  captured,  and  even  brought  the 
babes  they  found  with  their  mothers  ambushed  in  the 
woods  in  their  arms  to  Galvez.  But  the  partial  sup- 
pression of  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  1763,  and  its  total 
suppression   in    1773.  deprived    these   intelligent    bar- 

104 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

barians  of  their  spiritual  fathers.  They  dwindled 
away,  and  many  wholly  lost  the  faith  once  delivered 
to  them  by  saints. 

In  1804,  when  Father  Isabey,  a  holy  Dominican, 
made  his  way  to  the  "  Poste  des  Attakapas,"  he  suf- 
fered much  hard  treatment  from  the  Indians  he  met 
on  his  way,  remnants  of  the  Attakapas,  now  entirely 
extinct.  Among  other  cruelties  to  which  they  sub- 
jected him  was  the  pulling  off  of  the  nails  of  his  fin- 
gers and  toes.  Francis  Chauvet,  who  lived  in  a  wooden 
hut  facing  the  Teche,  and  died  there,  a  centenarian, 
not  many  years  ago,  distinctly  remembered  and  graph- 
ically described  the  maimed  condition  of  this  worthy 
priest  when  rescued  from  these  cruel  savages. 

IV 

But  long  before  the  granulation  of  cane  juice,  in- 
deed before  the  captivity  of  the  hapless  Belle-Isle, 
events  occurred  at  the  other  end  of  North  America 
destined  to  give  new  settlers  to  the  blooming  llanos  of 
the  Attakapas.  Nova  Scotia  (Acadie)  had  been  peo- 
pled by  Normans  and  Burgundians,  who  reclaimed 
thousands  of  acres  from  the  muddy  waters  of  the  Bay 
of  Fundy,  and  lived  by  their  daily  toil  in  peace  and 
plenty.  They  had  schools,  churches,  priests,  even 
musical  chimes,  which,  thanks  to  our  American  poet, 
will  ring  out  forever  in  song  and  story.  By  the  Treaty 
of  Utrecht,  171 3,  Louis  XIV.  ceded  Acadie  to  Queen 
Anne.  The  inhabitants  were  to  retain  their  lands  on 
swearing  allegiance  to  the  British  monarch.     But  they 

105 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

refused  to  take  any  oath  that  could  bind  them  to  bear 
arms  against  France,  and,  though  known  later  as 
French  Neutrals,  their  new  masters  refused  to  believe 
in  their  neutrality. 

They  were  cajoled,  deceived,  lulled  into  a  false  se- 
curity by  vague  promises,  and,  as  they  held  the  best 
lands,  their  enemies  finally  decided  on  a  wholesale 
spoliation.  The  terrible  vengeance  wreaked  on  these 
sturdy  farmers  will  ever  remain  a  shameful  blot  on  the 
blurred  escutcheon  of  England.  They  were  accused 
of  aiding  their  brethren  in  Canada  and  inciting  the  In- 
dians to  rebellion.  And  it  was  known  that  in  the  at- 
tack against  Beausejour  some  Acadians  had  battled 
under  the  lilies  against  the  British  flag. 

On  September  5,  1755,  the  Acadians,  in  response 
to  an  official  mandate,  assembled  in  their  chapels  to 
hear  important  details  as  to  their  future  relations  with 
the  British  Lion,  then  represented  by  the  unspeakable 
George  II.  With  sad  amazement  they  perceived  the 
handwriting  that  was  against  them.  Their  smiling 
farms  were  to  be  devastated,  their  houses  leveled. 
Ships  were  in  readiness  to  take  them  they  knew  not 
whither.  The  roads  from  the  chapels  to  the  shore 
were  alive  with  men,  women,  and  children,  weeping, 
praying,  or  mournfully  chanting  their  favorite  hymn 
to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  our  Savior.  Now  began  their 
melancholy  exile,  "  exile  without  an  end  and  without 
an  example  in  story." 

They  were  scattered  throughout  the  British  Colo- 
nies from  New  Hampshire  to   Georgia,  among  people 

106 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

whose  language  they  knew  not  and  whose  creed  they 
abhorred.  Everywhere  they  were  regarded  as  "  an  in- 
tolerable burden,"  and  they  retained  under  all  circum- 
stances "  an  unconquerable  dislike  to  the  English."* 
Husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children,  were  sepa- 
rated. Many  escaped  to  some  French  settlement. 
Those  who  remained  were  for  the  most  part  gradually 
absorbed  by  the  population  —  one  of  many  circum- 
stances which  show  how  the  genuine  Anglo-Saxon 
stock,  if  there  be  any  such  in  America,  has  been 
"  watered." 

The  army  chaplains  of  the  French  detachments 
that  came  to  America  during  the  Revolution  to  help 
the  patriots  in  their  struggle  against  England,  were 
often  surrounded  by  people  of  Irish  and  Acadian  line- 
age who  had  never  before  seen  a  priest. 

After  wandering  for  a  decade  as  helots  and  paupers, 
some  600  Acadians  made  their  way  to  New  Orleans. 
Their  sorrowful  faces,  as  they  drew  up  on  the  Levee 
and  the  old  Place  d'Armes,  evoked  the  deepest  sym- 
pathy of  their  compatriots  in  the  little  town  over 
which  the  spotless  banner  still  waved.  The  Ursulines, 
the  only  nuns  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Gulf,  re- 

*  During  the  Civil  War  several  Louisiana  regiments  were 
composed  largely  of  "  Cayjuns"  (Acadians),  who,  regarding  the 
war  as  a  fight  against  the  Yankees,  descendants  of  their  ancient 
enemies,  the  English,  fought  furiously.  Their  "  Cayjun  "  battle- 
cries,  prolonged  shrieks  like  the  war-whoop  of  the  Indians,  struck 
terror  into  the  hearts  of  their  opponents.  The  Unionists  are 
charged  with  wreaking  awful  vengeance  on  St.  Martinsville  and 
every  other  haunt  of  the  wild  and  vengeful  Acadian. 

107 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

ceived  many  of  the  women  and  children.  The  doors 
of  every  house  were  thrown  open  to  the  rest. 

Nothing  could  be  more  different  from  the  snug 
farms  and  smiling  meadows  of  "Acadie,  the  home  of 
the  happy,"  than  the  New  Orleans  of  that  day.  It 
was  bounded  rear  and  sides  by  a  cypress  swamp  ;  in 
front  was  the  river,  ever  threatening  to  submerge  its 
one-story  houses  and  palmetto  huts.  The  population 
was  about  3,000,  of  whom  perhaps  a  third  were  blacks; 
and  it  is  certainly  no  slander  to  say  that  neither  race 
was  overburdened  with  energy.  In  the  centre  of  the 
town,  facing  the  river,  was  the  modest  brick  church 
erected  in  1725,  which  was  swept  away  in  the  terrible 
conflagration    of  1788. 

The  religious  state  of  New  Orleans  at  this  epoch 
was  deplorable.  In  1763,  the  Superior  Council  issued 
a  decree  of  banishment  against  the  Society  of  Jesus. 
From  this  blow  the  Church  of  Colonial  Louisiana  never 
wholly  recovered.  The  baseness  and  tyranny  of  this 
insignificant  body,  composed  almost  entirely  of  wicked 
or  ignorant  men,  are  indescribable.  The  property  of 
the  Jesuits  was  confiscated  and  sold  for  $180,000.  Their 
chapels  were  leveled  to  the  ground,  and  the  faithful 
in  many  places  left  without  priest  or  altar.  Among  the 
sacrilegious  wretches  that  aided  in  this  infamous  work, 
Lafreniere,  of  the  Superior  Council,  stands  conspicuous. 
And  his  fate,  and  that  of  his  confederates,  a  few  years 
later,  was  a  terrible  instance  of  Divine  retribution.* 

*  Lafreniere  and  four  others  were  shot  in  New  Orleans  in 
1769,  for  high  treason.     Felix  del   Rey,  O'Reilly's  lawyer,  spoke 

108 


The    Chfn-c/i   of   the   Attakafas 

The  Acadians  found  a  struggle  for  supremacy  go- 
ing on  between  Fathers  Hilaire  de  Genovaux*  and 
Dagobert.  t  In  1766  the  Superior  Council  expelled 
the  former  and  made  the  latter,  who  bore  a  most  un- 
savory reputation,  head  of  religion  in  Louisiana.  The 
former  was  for  some  time  pastor  of  the  Attakapas,  but 
nothing  is  known  of  his  career  at  that  "  Poste  "  save 
that  he  kept  no  records,  or,  if  he  did,  they  were  after- 
wards lost,  as  Father  Barriere  charitably  suggests. 

The  mere  sight  of  the  Bourbon  fleur-de-lis  thrilled 
the  hearts  of  the  Acadians  and  kindled  gleams  of  tri- 
umph in  their  sad  eyes.  But  their  joy  was  allayed 
when  they  learned  that  Louisiana  was,  theoretically, 
a  Spanish  province.      Louis  XV.,  like  his  great-grand- 

of  him  with  withering  contempt  as  an  unfaithful  officer  and  the 
chief  instigator  of  conspiracy  against  his  king,  whose  money  he 
was  receiving  as  Attorney-General  while  driving  his  fellow-citizens 
to  rebellion  against  him. 

*  Genovaux  quarreled  with  the  Jesuit  Vicar-General,  and 
joined  the  Spanish  friars  against  Pere  Dagobert.  He  professed  to 
be  neutral.  Dagobert  besought  Governor  Unzaga  to  prevent 
Genovaux  from  abusing  him,  "  as  he  was  in  the  habit  of  doing 
every  day." 

t  The  writer  can  hardly  believe  Dagobert  was  as  bad  as  a  late 
historian  has  painted  him.  If  he  were,  his  conduct  could  scarcely 
have  escaped  the  eagle  eye  of  Count  O'Reilly,  who  lived  within 
a  few  yards  of  him,  and  who  would  have  had  him  removed  for  far 
less  than  his  accusers  say  against  him.  The  chief  authority 
against  him  was  Cyrilo,  who  came  to  supplant  him,  and  who  at 
that  time  did  not  understand  French,  and  was,  moreover,  ignorant 
of  the  customs  of  Louisiana.  On  the  arrival  of  the  Spanish  Ca- 
puchins, Dagobert  had  been  over  fifty  years  in  New  Orleans  and 
was  at  least  seventy-four  years  old. 

109 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

father,  Louis  XIV.,  grew  tired  of  paying  the  expenses 
of  a  colony  that  brought  him  no  return.  In  1762  he 
ceded  his  broad  lands  below  the  lakes  to  other  powers, 
and  the  parts  in  which  we  are  now  interested  fell  to 
Spain.  But  the  Catholic  king  was  in  no  hurry  to  ac- 
cept the  gift  his  royal  brother  had  thrust  upon  him. 
And,  as  no  representative  of  the  majesty  of  Spain  ap- 
peared for  years,  people  began  to  imagine  —  the  wish 
being  father  to  the  thought  —  that  the  transfer  an- 
nounced by  Louis  XV.  to  Governor  Abbadie,  in  April, 
1764,  had  not  taken  place  even  on  paper,  and  that  the 
Treaty  of  Cession  was  but  a  sham  instrument. 

Other  bands  of  Acadians  appeared  on  the  scene. 
Many  had  tried  the  French  West  India  Islands,  but 
under  torrid  skies  they  could  not  live.  In  February, 
1766,  216  Acadians  were  added  to  the  population  of 
Louisiana.  The  Acadian  Coast,  on  both  sides  of  the 
Mississippi,  above  New  Orleans,  was  colonized  by 
Acadians.  Rations  and  instruments  of  husbandry 
were  supplied  them  at  the  expense  of  the  government, 
and  many  made  their  way  to  the  flowery  meads  of  the 
Attakapas. 

It  was  certainly  for  God  and  their  country  that 
some  7,000  Acadians  suffered  the  horrors  of  an  exi!e 
unexampled  in  history.  But  the  constant  and  bitter 
persecution  to  which  they  were  subjected  in  "  the 
house  of  bondage "  broke  their  spirits  in  many  in- 
stances; nor  could  they  withstand  that  worse  ordeal, 
intimacy  with  free-thinking  Frenchmen.  Bishop  Car- 
roll notices  the  deterioration  of  the  Acadians  in  Balti- 


The    ChurcJi   of   the   A  ttakapas 

more.  Something  similar  might  be  observed  even  in 
the  remote  Attakapas,  and  early  in  the  next  century 
Father  Dufour  informs  us  that  only  six  people  at- 
tended his  first  Mass  in  St.  Martinsville.  The  vicious 
Frenchmen  who  labored  with  a  zeal  worthy  of  a  better 
cause  to  disseminate  irreligion,  corrupted  the  Acadians 
wherever  they  were  exposed  to  this  evil  influence. 
At  an  earlier  epoch  they  became  the  accomplices  or 
tools  of  the  vile  men  who  arrogated  to  themselves 
supreme  power  in  Church  and  State  before  the  arrival 
of  O'Reilly.  They  were  among  the  armed  insurgents 
who  paraded  the  streets  of  New  Orleans,  and  sustained 
the  Supreme  Council  when  that  body  ordered  the  ex- 
pulsion of  Governor  Ulloa,  in  1768.  In  the  report  to 
his  government  of  this  insurrection,  Ulloa  charges  the 
Acadians,  with  the  Germans,  with  being  guilty  of  in- 
gratitude, "they  having  received  nothing  but  benefits 
from  the  Spaniards." 

Indeed,  the  inhabitants  of  the  Attakapas  received 
only  kindness  from  the  Spaniards.  When  they  com- 
plained to  O'Reilly,  he  listened  gently  to  their  griev- 
ances, and  rectified  them,  as  far  as  possible,  on  the 
spot.     De  Clouet,*    who    was    commandant    of    the 

*  Opelousas  was  governed  from  Attakapas;  but  in  1787,  as  the 
population  had  largely  increased,  Opelousas  was  made  a  distinct 
command  under  Nicholas  Forstall,  while  the  Attakapas  remained 
in  charge  of  Chevalier  de  Clouet.  Forstall  (possibly  Forristal),  was 
an  Irishman,  and  carried  with  him  everywhere  a  huge  genea- 
logical tree,  which  showed  his  descent  from  the  Kings  of  Ireland. 
He  was  an  upright,  pious  man.  Many  of  his  descendants  bear- 
ing the  name   Forstall  may  yet  be   found   in   Louisiana.      Judge 


The    Church   of  the  Attakapas 

"  Poste  "  in  his  time,  is  to-day  represented  by  numer- 
ous descendants  in  the  vicinity  of  St.  Martinsville,  and 
much  information  referring  to  these  early  days  may 
be  gathered  from  this  ancient  family.  As  to  the  In- 
dians, O'Reilly  officially  declared  that  it  was  "contrary 
to  the  mild  and  beneficent  laws  of  Spain  to  hold  them 
in  slavery."  His  closest  attention  was  given  to  every- 
thing regarding  the  divine  worship.  He  even  re- 
quested the  commandant  to  keep  the  church  at 
Natchitoches  clear  of  dogs  during  divine  worship. 
The  alcaldes  and  alguazil  or  mayor,  with  the  escribano, 
were  commanded  to  visit  all  prisoners  every  week,  and 
the  governor  several  times  a  year.  The  humane  and 
Christian  regulations  established  in  Louisiana  by  this 
great  man  reflect  high  honor  on  Spanish  colonial  legis- 
lation. 

V 

We  have  seen  that  the  Attakapas  country  was 
peopled  chiefly  by  Canadians  and  Acadians,  originally 
of  the  same  stock.  The  religious  wars  and  other  dis- 
turbances of  New  Orleans,  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
headquarters,  found  but  little  echo  in  this  peaceful 
region.  The  "Poste"  was  seldom  without  a  priest. 
There  is  a  regular  succession  of  pastors  up  to  1889. 
Except  in  administering  the  sacraments  of  baptism 
and  matrimony,  and  burying  the  dead,  the  pastor  had 
little  to  do  for  the  white  male  portion  of  his  congre- 

Gayarre  told  the  writer  that  he  had  seen  the  above  Forstall 
Genealogy. 


The    Church   of   the   Attakapas 

gation.  Governor  Unzaga  says:  "The  men  never 
confessed  after  their  first  communion — would  think 
it  hypocrisy  to  do  so."*  But  they  were  all  anxious 
to  have  the  ministrations  of  the  Church  when  fatal 
illness  seized  them. 

The  Acadians  have  kept  distinct  from  the  Louis- 
iana Creoles,  and  have  been  strangely  unprogressive.  f 
"  My  mother  cooked  in  this  manner,  so  shall  I."  "  My 
father  got  along  without  that  invention,  so  can  I." 
"  What  was  good  enough  for  our  parents  will  do  for 
us."  These  and  similar  responses  are  given  in  Aca- 
dian patois  to  those  who  speak  to  them  of  modern 
improvements.  They  are  called  "  Cayjuns,"  a  cor- 
ruption of  "Acadians,"  and  the  Creoles  rather  look 
down  on  them  for  their  peculiar  habits  and  strange 
dialect.  They  dwell  mostly  in  unpainted  structures 
called  maisons  d'Acadiens,  small  but  solidly  built  cot- 
tages of  cypress : 

"  Near  to  the  bank  of  the  river,  overshadowed  by  oaks  from 
whose  branches 
Garlands  of  Spanish  moss  and  of  mystic  mistletoe  flaunted. 
Such  as  the  Druids  cut  down  with  golden  hatchets  at  yule- 
tide, 
Stood  secluded  and  still  the  house  of  the  herdsman." 

The  Acadians  usually  marry  young  and  have  large 
families.      Among  them  the    cradle  is  never  empty. 

*Much  the  same  is  said  by  Cyrilo  in  his  report  to  the  Bishop 
of  Santiago  de  Cuba.  But  both  reports  refer,  perhaps,  only  to 
New  Orleans,  and  are  probably  exaggerated. 

t  Several  Acadians  have  attained  eminence  as  lawyers  and 
soldiers 

8  113 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

They  are  a  peaceful,  industrious  race,  strongly  attached 
to  their  homes  and  families.  Among  their  faults  and 
those  of  the  Creoles  are  a  habit  of  marrying  relations, 
and  sometimes  a  passion  for  gambling,  and  very  sad 
the  consequences  often  are.  Though  both  races  fled 
from  English  tyranny  in  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia, 
they  have  never  been  anxious  to  receive  settlers  of 
other  races.  A  more  liberal  spirit  is  now  beginning 
to  prevail  among  the  foremost  inhabitants.  Conserva- 
tive as  the  Gallic  races  are,  the  railroad,  immigration, 
and  the  introduction  of  the  English  language  will 
have  swept  away  their  exclusiveness  before  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  headquarters  of  the  Attakapas  is  St.  Martins- 
ville, a  village  of  some  two  thousand  souls.  But 
places  of  equal  or  greater  importance  now  stud  that 
romantic  region.  St.  Martin  is  no  longer,  as  before 
the  war,  a  little  Paris.  Its  beauty  even  then  could  not 
have  been  of  the  architectural  order,  for  there  are  no 
remains  of  any  buildings  save  the  plainest.  But 
boundless  prairies  dotted  with  sheep  and  cattle,  vast 
plantations  of  sugar  cane,  the  majestic  trees  that 
shade  the  bayou,  endless  hedges  of  wild  roses,  "  the 
flowers  that  bloom  in  the  spring "  in  tens  of  thou- 
sands, but,  above  all,  the  winding  Teche,  make  the 
parish  of  St.  Martin,  "  a  thing  of  beauty  and  a  joy 
forever." 

The  religious  history  of  this  region  may  be  gath- 
ered from  the  church  registers  and  from  tradition. 
The  inhabitants  have  preserved  many  of  the  peculiar- 

114 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

ities  of  speech  and    manner    that  characterized  their 
ancestors,  and  have  never  lost  the  Faith. 

The  oldest  register  is  copied  from  that  of  Pointe 
Coupee,  a  district  visited  by  all  the  political  and  re- 
ligious  celebrities  of  early  days,  from  O'Reilly  to 
Pefialvert,  Though  much  worn,  one  can  count  on  it 
eighty-two  baptisms  and  twelve  marriages  from  1756 
to  1773.  The  "  Poste  des  Attakapas  "  had  at  first  no 
resident  priest,  and  the  sacraments  were  administered 
there  by  Father  Didur  of  Pointe  Couple,  and  Friar 
Valentine,  of  Natchitoches.  Register  No.  i,  in  the 
archives  of  St.  Martin,  is  a  small  folio  bound  in 
parchment,  in  a  very  dilapidated  condition.  Here  is 
a  copy  of  a  note  on  page  i,  which  gives  interesting 
details  of  the  origin  of  the  Church  of  the  Attakapas: 

"  In  Nomine  J.  Amen. 
"  This  book  has  been  made  to  serve  as  a  register  for  Baptisms, 
Marriages,  and  Burials,  in  the  Parish  of  the  Poste  des  Attakapas, 
beginning  from  1765,  Father  John  Francis  officiating.  . 
This  colony  belonged  to  France,  but  by  the  Treaty  of  Peace  it 
was  ceded  to  Spain.  The  Pastors  that  succeeded  Father  John 
Francis  are  Rev.  Hilaire  de  Genovaux,  French,  and  Rev.  Joseph 
d'Arazena,  Spaniard.  No  register  of  Father  Hilary's  administra- 
tion can  be  found.  We  do  not  think  he  neglected  to  note  what 
happened,  but  that  his  register  was  lost.  Father  d'Arazena  took 
possession  of  this  Parish,  January  20,  1782.  He  wrote  two  small 
books  in  which  baptisms,  marriages,  and  burials,  of  whites  and 
of  blacks  are  noted.  These  were  left  to  Father  Gefrotin,  a  Do- 
minican, who  succeeded  him  in  1783.  Another  register  was 
found  which  helped  to  replace  things  in  order.  .  .  .  These 
originals  are  of  great  use  in  enabling  us  to  give  correct  records. 
.     .     .     We  beg  pastors  to  use  this  and  no  other." 

Father  Marceda  became  pastor  in  1787,  Father  de 
"5 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

Deva  in  1788.  As  a  rule,  priests  did  not  remain  long 
at  this  Poste.  In  1791,  Father  de  Deva  was  succeeded 
by  Father  George  Murphy,  an  Irish  secular  priest. 
He  labored  in  these  parts  with  great  zeal  from  1789 
to  1794*  and  was  noted  for  his  gifts  as  a  preacher. 
He  exercised  the  sacred  ministry  in  various  languages, 
among  them  English,  French,  and  Spanish.  During 
his  incumbency,  we  find  the  first  mention  of  St. 
Martin  as  patron  of  the  Poste  des  Attakapas.  It  was 
made  in  1793  by  his  assistant,  Father  Pedro  de  Camora.* 
In  the  book  of  burials.  Father  Murphy  speaks  of  the 
Church  of  St.  Martin,f  February  6,  1794. 

After  more  than  four  years'  fruitful  labor,  Rev, 
George  Murphy  left  the  humble  parsonage  of  St. 
Martin. 

The  transfer  of  Louisiana  to  Spain  was,  on  the 
whole,  favorable  to  religion.  The  Catholic  kings 
showed  great  zeal  for  the  progress  of  the  Gospel.     In 

*  Perhaps  this  priest  is  identical  with  Rev.  Peter  de  Zamora, 
who  came  to  Louisiana  with  Sebastian  O'Farrell,  Marquis  of 
Casacalvo,  and  received  faculties  from  Very  Rev.  Thomas  Has- 
sett,  April   11,  1804. 

+  This  would  indicate  that  Longfellow  was  a  little  prema- 
ture in  calling  the  capital  of  the  Attakapas  St.  Martin.  It  be- 
gan to  be  generally  so  called  only  in  the  beginning  of  the 
present  century.  Over  the  high  altar  of  the  church  is  an  old 
painting  of  St.  Martin  dividing  his  cloak  with  a  beggar. 

Le  Sieur  Louis  Charles  de  Blanc,  captain  in  the  armies  of 
the  king  of  Spain,  was  civil  and  military  commandant  of  the 
Poste  des  Attakapas  in  1800.  The  writer  thinks  that  he  is  the 
first  commandant  of  whom  it  is  recorded  that  he  resided  at  St. 
Martinsville.     His  descendants  are  numerous  about  the  old  Poste. 

116 


The    CImrch  of  the  Attakapas 

1772  Father  Cyrilo  and  four  other  Capuchins  came  to 
New  Orleans  to  replace  their  lax  French  brethren, 
who,  however,  refused  to  be  replaced.  Headed  by 
the  famous  Pere  Dagobert,  they  had  so  won  the 
people,  and  prejudiced  them  against  the  Spanish 
Clergy,  that  Governor  Unzaga  feared  to  remove  them. 
Governor  Miro,  however,  supported  Cyrilo,  and  some 
semblance  of  order  was  drawn  out  of  chaos.  Cyrilo 
wrote  very  disparagingly  of  religion  in  Louisiana.  "  It 
is  more  difficult,"  said  he,  "  to  weed  the  garden  of  New 
Orleans  than  it  was  to  plant  it  in  the  beginning." 

Up  to  this  time  no  bishop  had  visited  Louisiana, 
and  no  priest  had  been  empowered  to  administer  con- 
firmation. The  king  of  Spain  desired  that  his  Louisi- 
ana subjects  might  receive  that  great  sacrament,  and, 
on  his  recommendation  (1779),  the  Holy  See  appointed 
an  auxiliary  to  the  bishopric  of  Santiago  de  Cuba, 
who  was  to  exercise  his  functions  in  Louisiana.  The 
austere  Cyrilo,  consecrated  in  1781,  was  chosen  for  this 
office  —  a  choice  that  did  not  give  universal  satisfac- 
tion. Being  really  a  holy  and  zealous  man,  the  bishop 
infused  new  life  into  the  country  parishes,  which  he 
visited  assiduously,  and  he  was  a  terror  to  the  evil- 
doers who  have  made  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  the 
time  and  place  so  painful  to  the  Catholic  student.  In 
1786  he  issued  a  pastoral,  in  which  he  eloquently 
urged  his  flock  to  attend  Mass  on  Sundays  and  holy 
days,  and  censured  the  wicked  custom  of  the  negroes 
who,  at  the  vesper  hour  every  Sunday,  assembled 
in  a  green,   still    called   Congo   square,  to   dance   the 

117 


The    Church   of  the  Attakapas 

bamboula  and  throw  the  wanga,  and  worship  the 
serpent,  with  hideous  rites  imported  from  Africa  by 
the  Yolofs,  Foulahs,  Bambarras,  Mandingoes,  and  other 
races  of  the  dark  continent. 

While  changes  went  on  at  headquarters,  the  Church 
of  the  Attakapas,  save  for  the  appointment  or  confirm- 
ing of  a  pastor,  seems  to  have  been  left  severely  alone. 
There  is  no  record,  so  far  as  we  can  ascertain,  that  the 
zealous  Bishop  Cyrilo  ever  evangelized  "the  black, 
white,  and  brown"  dwellers  on  these  "sultry  savan- 
nas." He  visited  many  other  country  churches,  as  is 
evident  from  the  registers,  which  he  caused  to  be  kept 
in  Spanish,  not  in  French  as  heretofore.  The  many 
Irish  clergy  scattered  throughout  the  territory  over 
which  this  prelate  held  spiritual  sway, —  Fathers 
Burke,  Walsh,  White,  Hassett,  O'Reilly,  Crosby,  Barry, 
Savage,  McKenna,  etc., —  who  had  been  accustomed  to 
make  these  entries  in  Latin,  are  commanded  to  keep 
their  books  henceforth  in  Spanish.  But  no  order  of 
this  nature  is  recorded  in  the  Attakapas  register  till 
March  26,  1796. 

The  reward  which  so  often  comes  to  the  zealous 
and  saintly  in  this  life  overtook  Bishop  Cyrilo  in  the 
midst  of  his  labors  for  souls.  He  was  suspended  by 
the  king,*  and  commanded  to  return  to  his  province, 
Catalonia.  A  long  letter,  dated  November  23,  1793, 
from  Charles  IV.,  signed  Yo  el  Rey,  gave  him  this  un- 
welcome news,  and  in  1794  he  left  Louisiana  forever, 

*The  king  of  Spain  as  "Protector  of  the  Council  of  Trent" 
assumed  great  authority  in  Church  matters. 

118 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

He  was  delayed  at  Havana  for  want  of  means  to  take 
him  to  Spain  in  compliance  with  the  royal  ukase,  and 
was  still  in  that  city  in  1799,  the  incumbent  of  Havana 
refusing  to  pay  his  salary  till  the  king  interfered. 
Well  might  this  holy  man,  persecuted  by  his  brethren, 
his  kins',  and  the  abandoned  souls  for  whom  he  toiled, 
exclaim:  "I  have  loved  justice  and  hated  iniquity, 
therefore  I  die  in  a  strange  land." 

On  October  19,  1796,  the  "  Poste  des  Attakapas" 
saw  a  bishop  for  the  first  time.  On  the  twenty-sixth 
of  March,  the  pastor,  styled  by  Bishop  Penalvert  "  Don 
Miguel  Bernardo  de  Barriere,"  made  the  first  Spanish 
entry  in  his  register,  probably  because  he  had  on  that 
day  received  ofificial  notice  of  the  coming  of  his  bishop. 
This  visitation  is  the  only  one  made  during  the 
Spanish  domination. 

In  the  Bull  which  makes  New  Orleans  the  see  of  a 
diocese  bounded  north  and  east  by  the  diocese  of 
Baltimore,  and  south  and  west  by  Linares  and  Du- 
rango,  Pius  VI.  gives  as  his  reason  for  forming  Louisi- 
ana and  Florida  into  a  separate  diocese  "  the  miserable 
state  of  religion  and  ecclesiastical  discipline  "  in  these 
parts.  Don  Luis  Pefialvert  y  Cardenas,*  having  been 
the  right  hand  of  the  bishop  at  Havana,  was  well 
aware  of  the  deplorable  condition  of  the  diocese  con- 
fided to  his  pastoral  care.  His  coming  was  hailed 
with  delight  by  the  Governor,  Baron  Carondelet,  who 

*  According  to  Spanish  custom,  he  bore  his  mother's  name 
as  well  as  his  father's.  His  parents  were  Don  Diego  Pefialvert  and 
Doria  Maria  Luisa  de  Cardenas. 

119 


77/e    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

had  reported  adversely  on  Church  matters  in  his  prov- 
ince, and  seen  with  grief  the  unsuccessful  efforts  of 
Cyrilo  to  correct  abuses.  The  bishop's  instructions  to 
his  clergy  show  that  he  was  filled  with  the  spirit  of 
God  and  an  ardent  zeal  for  souls.  From  the  St. 
Martinsville  register,  "  Parroquia  de  San  Martin  des 
Atacapas,'"  we  gather  that  he  made  a  careful  examina- 
tion of  all  the  records  that  could  be  found,  noted  their 
defects,  and  put  them  in  the  best  order  possible. 
The  great  distinction  always  kept  up  in  Louisiana  be- 
tween people  of  unmixed  European  origin  and  the 
other  races,  is  apparent  from  these  records,  as  the 
"whites,  the  blacks,  and  the  browns"  are  entered  sepa- 
rately in  the  lists  of  baptisms,  marriages,  and  burials. 
As  in  New  Orleans  and  other  parts  of  Louisiana,  there 
were  in  the  Attakapas,  negroes,  Indians,  Mestizos 
(children  of  the  white  and  the  Indian),  griffe  (of  the 
African  and  the  Indian),  mulatto,  mulatre,  mulattress 
(of  the  white  and  black).  These  mixed  races  the 
bishop  calls  broivns,  inorenos.  Later,  however,  cog- 
nizance was  taken  but  of  two  classes :  the  whites, 
Europeans  and  their  descendants,  and  the  colored.* 

*To  evade  O'Reilly's  merciful  law,  which  forbade  the  enslav- 
ing of  Indians,  these  poor  people  were  often  classed  with  the 
mulattoes  as  colored. 

The  Spaniards  were  most  kind  to  the  Indians.  In  May,  1784, 
Indian  congresses  were  held  with  great  pomp  at  Pensacola  and 
Mobile,  at  which  Count  Arthur  O'Neil  and  Governor  Miro  pre- 
sided. Of  the  treaty  framed  on  that  occasion,  here  is  an  article  : 
"  In  conformity  with  the  humane  and  generous  sentiments  of  the 
Spanish  nation,  we  (the  Indians)  renounce  forever  the  custom  of 
raising  scalps,  and  making  slaves  of  our  white  captives,"  etc. 

120 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

Bishop  Penalvert's  entry  in  the  Atacapaz  register 
is  signed  simply:  "El  Obisbo  de  la  Luisiana." 

The  bishop  did  not  forget  the  Atacapaz.  Three 
years  later  he  speaks  of  that  district  as  one  into  which 
evil  men  had  penetrated  —  adventurers  who  "have  no 
religion,  acknowledge  no  God,  and  have  deteriorated 
the  morals  of  the  people." 

Louisiana  was  soon  to  lose  this  zealous  prelate.  In 
1801  he  was  made  Archbishop  of  Guatemala.  The 
diocese  was  now  governed  by  Canon  Thomas  Hassett, 
head  of  the  Cathedral  chapter,  with  whom  was  associ- 
ated Very  Rev.  Patrick  Walsh.  These  worthy  and 
learned  Irish  priests,  who  had  labored  long  in  the  dio- 
cese and  were  most  useful  in  a  cosmopolitan  city  as 
speaking  several  European  languages,  were  not  des- 
tined to  live  many  years  under  the  American  flag.* 
Father  Hassett,  whose  health  was  broken  by  the  sever- 

*  Fray  Antonio  Sedilla,  known  traditionally  as  Pere  Antoine, 
came  to  New  Orleans,  in  Governor  Miro's  time,  to  introduce  the 
Inquisition;  but  Miro  shipped  him  back  to  Spain  at  once.  He  re- 
turned and  ingratiated  himself  with  the  people,  who  supported 
him  in  his  rebellions  against  Administrator  Walsh  and  Bishop 
Dubourg.  The  stories  of  his  immorality  are  probably  exagger- 
ated. He  lived  forty  years  in  New  Orleans,  baptized  and  married 
almost  everybody.  His  closing  years  were  edifying.  He  went 
barefoot,  wore  a  coarse  brown  habit,  and  a  rope  as  his  girdle.  It 
is  said  he  received  from  the  people  thirty  to  forty  thousand  dollars 
a  year,  and  gave  all  to  the  poor.  He  lived  in  a  hovel  behind  the 
Cathedral.  Several  persons  still  living  knew  him  well.  Gayarre 
described  him  as  a  prodigy  of  ignorance,  not  able  even  to  speak  or 
write  his  own  language  correctly,  and,  as  a  director,  very  easy. 
He  died  in  1829.     The  Legislature  adjourned  to  attend  his  funeral. 

121 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

ity  of  his  apostolic  labors  in  a  climate  which  had  never 
agreed  with  him,  died  suddenly  in  April,  1804.  The 
closing  years  of  Father  Walsh  were  embittered  by  the 
frequent  rebellions  of  Fray  Antonio  Sedilla,  After  an 
illness  of  five  days,  the  administrator  died,  August  22, 
1806.  Posthumous  honors  of  every  description  were 
lavished  on  a  priest  who  had  during  life  won  the  re- 
spect of  friend  and  foe.  Father  Walsh's  official  title 
was  "  Vicar-General  and  Governor  ad  interiin  of  the 
diocese."  His  remains  lie  beneath  the  sanctuary  of  the 
old  Ursuline  chapel.  The  cathedral  being  under 
an  interdict,  in  consequence  of  the  usurpation  of 
Sedilla,  this  was  the  only  place  in  the  city  in  which 
Mass  could  be  offered  or  the  sacraments  administered. 
Besides,  Father  Walsh  was  a  benefactor  of  the  Ursu- 
line community. 

VI 

The  French  in  Louisiana  have  been  singularly 
barren  of  vocations  to  the  priesthood.  The  first  cen- 
tury and  a  half  produced  one,  the  learned  Father  Viel. 
The  bishops  of  Louisiana  have  always  been  natives  of 
other  countries.  In  the  diocese  of  New  Orleans  to-day 
there  are  among  the  secular  clergy  only  two  priests  of 
Creole  parentage.  Several  youths  of  that  race  have, 
however,  joined  the  Jesuits  and  other  religious  bodies. 
In  1794  Father  Viel  became  seventh  pastor  of  Atta- 
kapas, or  rather  exercised  his  priestly  functions  there 
when  required,  for,  we  regret  to  say,  he  is  marked  in 
the   register,   "  Not    approved."     A  writer    of   distin- 

122 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

guished  ability,  he  consoled  himself  in  the  troubles  of 
life  by  devoting  his  leisure  hours  to  the  muses. 
Though  "  not  approved,"  he  is  known  traditionally  as 
an  excellent  priest.  The  distinguished  men  whom  he 
had  educated  comforted  his  old  age  by  their  filial  at- 
tentions, and  published  a  magnificent  edition  of  his 
works. 

Father  de  Barriere,  an  emigre,  eighth  pastor  of  this 
"  Poste,"  arrived*  March  8,  1795,  and  remained  till 
1804.  His  name  occurs  from  time  to  time  till  1830, 
and  is  also  found  in  the  registers  of  Opelousas  and 
Lafayette,  where  he  was  pastor  successively.  He  re- 
turned to  France  and  died  in  his  native  city,  Bordeaux. 

As  time  wore  on  the  early  settlers  were  joined  by 
friends  and  relatives,  and  it  was  decided  to  build  a 
village.  A  surveyor  named  Johnson  drew  the  plan, 
but  the  progress  was  slow.  The  houses  were  very 
plain,  and  did  not  extend  further  than  what  is  now 
Main  street.  The  oldest  inhabitants  of  a  few  years 
ago  remembered  the  last  years  and  death  of  the  cen- 
tenarian, Francois  Chauvet,  who  lived  near  the  bayou. 
When  he  arrived  at  the  "  Poste,"  Main  street  was  part 
of  a  vast  prairie.  He  worshiped  in  the  first  chapel, 
a  small  frame  building,  memorable,  says  tradition,  for 
the  visit  of  Evangeline.  The  poor  presbytery  was,  in 
1795,  the  oldest  house  in  the  village.  That  the  church 
was  built  in  1770,  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that 

*  Father  de  Barriere  lived  about  a  mile  from  the  village,  but 
walked  in  every  day  to  say  Mass.  The  church  was  small  and  poor. 
On  Sundays  he  remained  about  the  church  all  day. 

123 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

it  was  at  that  period  Mr.  d'Hauterive  gave  the  land 
the  church  and  its  dependencies  now  occupy,  and  on 
which  a  large  part  of  the  town  is  built.  From  this 
donation  arises  the  obligation  of  many  property 
holders  to  pay  rent  to  the  church.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that  during  the  Spanish  domination  the 
inhabitants  paid  no  taxes.  The  clergymen  were  liber- 
ally paid  by  the  king  of  Spain,  who  even  furnished 
necessaries  for  the  church.  Spanish  galleons  brought 
their  hundreds  of  thousands  of  solid  money  from 
Mexico  to  Louisiana  every  year  to  pay  the  expenses 
of  Church  and  State. 

From  1802  to  1840,  2,198  baptisms  of  blacks  are 
registered.  Up  to  1887  there  are  recorded  in  the 
archives  of  St.  Martin  19,692  baptisms,  3,527  mar- 
riages, and  7,227  burials. 

Father  Gabriel  Isabey  exercised  the  ministry  at  St. 
Martinsville  from  1804  till  his  death,  of  heart  disease, 
July  21,  1823,  During  his  administration  the  eccle- 
siastical extension  of  the  parish  was  divided.  This 
priest  was  greatly  beloved.  He  had  a  pleasant  face, 
was  tall,  well  proportioned,*  and  possessed  of  elegant 
manners.  His  gentleness  and  amiability  gained  all 
hearts,  and  when  he  died  there  was  general  mourning. 
He  owned  a  plantation,  of  which  his  nephew,  Mark, 
took  care.  Little  children  were  greatly  attached  to 
him,  A  venerable  lady  told  us,  that  when  she  was 
four  or  five  years  old,  she  went  to  his  door,  and  call- 

*  The  writer  has  a  miniature  of  Father  Isabey  which  bears  out 
this  description. 

124 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

ing  his  old  servant,  Sylvain,  by  his  pet  name,  said: 
"  Vain-vain,  where  is  Isabey?"  The  good  priest  came 
out  and  gave  her  cakes  and  candy.  The  memories  of 
childhood  are  never  forgotten,  and  to  her  latest  breath 
she  recalled  this  incident  with  pleasure.  Vain-vain 
could  not  survive  his  master.  He  ran  through  the 
village,  exclaiming  in  his  picturesque  jargon :  Maitc 
mouri,  Ne'giie  mouri.  His  intense  grief  deprived  him 
of  the  little  sense  he  once  had.  He  bought  a  loaf 
and  got  a  bottle  .of  water,  and  laid  them  on  Pere 
Isabey's  grave :  "  C^  pour  vonyage  la,"  said  he.  He 
wandered  in  the  wood,  which  at  that  time  sur- 
rounded the  church,  striking  his  head  against  the 
trees  and  crying  out :  Maite  mouri,  N^giie  mouri.  A 
few  days  later  the  body  of  the  poor  Congo  was  found 
floating  on  the  Teche. 

Even  the  animals  loved  this  good  man.  After  his 
funeral  his  favorite  cat  disappeared,  and  every  one  was 
asking:  "  Where  is  Pere  Isabey's  cat  ?"  But  the  poor 
animal  was  soon  forgotten.  Years  after,  when  the  church 
was  about  to  be  enlarged,  the  whole  village  assembled 
to  see  the  remains  of  Father  Isabey  exhumed.  The 
skeleton  of  the  cat  was  found  at  the  foot  of  his  coffin. 

Father  Borella,  an  Italian,  came  to  St.  Martin  at 
the  age  of  fifty,  August  20,  1819.  He  was  pastor  of 
the  parish  from  the  death  of  Father  Isabey  till  his 
own,  January  21,  1836.  He  left  $16,000  to  enlarge 
the  church.  His  grave  in  the  cemetery  being  neg- 
lected, his  remains  were  removed  to  the  church, 
where  they  now  repose. 

"5 


77?^    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

In  1826  and  1827  multitudes  of  Congo  negroes 
used  to  assemble  every  Sunday  on  the  green  before 
the  church  and  dance  under  the  trees.  This  gave  no 
small  annoyance  to  the  pastor,  the  dances  being  part 
of  the  hideous  rites  with  which  these  benighted  people 
worshiped  their  idols.  But  gradually  they  became 
Christians,  and  the  horrible  ceremonies  entirely  disap- 
peared. 

Under  the  administration  of  Father  Borella  the 
parish  was  again  divided.  Of  Father  Brasseur,  who 
succeeded  him,  1830  to  1840,  no  traditions  seem  to 
have  been  preserved.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
Father  de  St.  Aubin,  1840  to  1841.  In  1842  the  four- 
teenth pastor,  Father  Martin,  arrived.  He  was  seventy 
years  old,  and  soon  became  paralyzed,  except  as  to 
his  tongue.  A  priest,  aged  thirty.  Father  Berel,  as- 
sisted. This  pcjor  young  man  became  very  ill,  and  a 
charitable  woman  took  care  of  him.  One  day  she  left 
him  in  charge  of  a  colored  servant,  and  coming  in  the 
evening  to  see  how  he  fared,  she  found  him  alone  and 
dying.  She  raised  his  head  on  her  arm,  and  he  cried 
out:  "A  little  water,  for  the  love  of  God."  But  be- 
fore she  had  time  to  assuage  his  thirst,  he  was  dead. 
Father  Lucas  was  curate  from  1843  ^o  1845. 

Father  Dufour,  fifteenth  pastor,  had  a  very 
pleasing  countenance,  and,  despite  a  frankness  that 
sometimes  gave  offense  to  those  he  reproved,  was 
generally  beloved.  He  had  a  great  gift  of  eloquence. 
The  first  Sunday  he  officiated  only  six  persons  were 
present  at  Mass.     Yet  he  preached  a  most  powerful 

126 


The    Church  of  the   Aitakafas 

sermon.  His  auditors  spread  his  fame  as  an  eloquent 
speaker,  and  the  second  Sunday  eighty  came  to  Mass. 
The  church  was  soon  too  small  for  the  congregation. 
But  this  brilliant  man  could  not  long  content  himself 
in  such  a  Sleepy  Hollow.  He  left  on  April  29,  1848, 
deeply  regretted.  The  ancients  still  speak  of  him 
with  admiration  and  affection.  Of  his  successor,  J. 
Jacques  Fontbonne,  no  details  have  reached  us. 

About  this  period  the  shrill  whistle  of  the  steam- 
boat was  heard  for  the  first  time  on  the  Teche.  Lc 
Correo,  Captain  Curry,  began  to  ply  regularly  between 
New  Orleans  and  St.  Martinsville.  The  inhabitants 
built  a  beautiful  steamer  which  they  called  Attaka- 
pas.  The  captain  belonged  to  a  family  well-known 
in  these  regions,  Delahoussaye.  Every  arrival  of  this 
handsome  "  greyhound  "  of  the  river  was  announced 
by  a  volley  of  musketry. 

vn 

The  seventeenth  pastor,  Ange  Marie  Felix  Jan, 
was  born  at  Pontivy,  April  11,  1802.  The  ofificial 
record  of  his  birth  is  dated  :  "  Le  vingt  et  un  Germinal 
de  I'an  dixieme  de  la  Republique  Fran^aise,  une  et  in- 
divisible." He  was  baptized  stealthily  in  a  hospital. 
Becoming  an  orphan  at  a  tender  age,  he  was  placed  by 
his  godfather  and  guardian,  Ange  Marie  Chassin,  at 
the  Jesuit  College  of  Ste.  Anne  d'Auray,  where  he  re- 
mained seven  years.  A  letter  from  the  president, 
which  the  old   priest   carefully  preserved,  bears  high 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

testimony  to  his  literary  ability  and  good  conduct, 
and  describes  his  life  as  most  Christian  and  edifying. 
He  desired  to  become  a  Jesuit,  but  his  guardian 
opposed  him,  and  he  entered  the  Sulpitian  College  at 
Paris,  1823.  In  1826  he  finished  his  philosophy  and 
theology,  and  was  ordained  May,  1826.  The  cere- 
monies began  at  6  A.  M.  and  were  not  over  till  2  P.  M. 
Pere  Jan  always  spoke  with  enthusiasm  of  Archbishop 
de  Quelen,  "Ah,"  he  would  say,  "  Monseigneur  was 
not  handsome,  but  what  dignity,  what  nobility  in  his 
demeanor,  especially  when  he  officiated !  And  with 
what  fervor  and  piety  he  celebrated  Mass!" 

The  young  priest  made  a  series  of  resolutions 
which  are  those  of  a  saintly  soul,  and  to  which  he  ad- 
hered to  the  end  of  his  long  life.  Love  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  was  almost  a  passion  with  him.  From  child- 
hood he  recited  the  rosary  every  day. 

His  first  charge  was  to  teach  the  catechism  classes 
for  four  hours  a  day.  He  was  so  devoted  to  this  duty 
that,  even  as  an  old  man,  he  loved  to  recall  this  period, 
and  spoke  of  it  as  the  happiest  of  his  life.  He  was 
exceedingly  modest,  and  it  was  but  rarely  he  raised 
a  little  the  veil  which  covered  his  life  in  France.  The 
superb  ceremonies  that  celebrated  the  coronation  of 
Charles  X.  were  never  effaced  from  his  memory.  The 
grand  tableau  made  by  the  princes,  cardinals,  ambassa- 
dors, and  all  the  great  orders  of  the  State,  gratified  his 
natural  love  of  the  beautiful ;  "  but,"  he  would  say 
when  describing  the  scene,  "the  most  imposing  figure 
there  was  Monseigneur  de  Quelen." 

128 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

P^re  Jan,  like  the  other  members  of  his  famiJy,  was 
a  royalist.  In  this  he  never  changed,  and  towards  the 
close  of  his  life  showed  the  deepest  feeling  at  the 
death  of  the  Count  de  Chambord.  He  related  that 
when  that  prince  was  only  five  years  old,  he  and  other 
seminarians  met  him  with  the  Duchess  de  Guyon  in 
the  gardens  of  the  Tuilleries.  The  Duchess  asked  the 
young  people  if  they  would  like  to  see  the  prince. 
"Oh,  yes,  Madame  la  Duchesse,  we  should  be  most 
happy,"  was  the  reply.  But  princes  of  five  are, 
happily,  like  other  children  of  the  same  age,  and  the 
royal  child,  intimidated  by  the  crowd  of  young  men, 
hid  his  face  in  his  hands.  But  in  a  moment  he  re- 
covered the  self-possession  taught  him  from  the 
cradle;  and  when  the  lady  said:  "  Salute  these  gentle- 
men, Monseigneur,"  the  charming  child  advanced 
most  graciously  and  murmured  in  his  sweet  voice, 
"good  morning,  gentlemen."  The  seminarians  gave  a 
hearty  cheer  for  the  Count  de  Chambord. 

A  second  time  Pere  Jan  sought  to  enter  the 
Society  of  Jesus,  but  his  confessor  said:  "No;  go 
back  to  Brittany."  He  obeyed,  simply,  and  we  next 
hear  of  him  as  curate  of  the  Cathedral  of  Vannes. 
Here,  as  everywhere  else,  he  won  golden  opinions,  and 
we  have  the  written  testimony  of  the  senior  canon  as 
to  the  great  sanctity  of  his  life  and  his  zeal  for  souls. 
Equally  fruitful  in  virtue  was  his  sojourn  at  Nantes, 
as  the  bishop  and  clergy  of  that  city  bore  witness.* 

*  Pere  Jan  preserved  the  letters  received  from  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal authorities  under  whom  he  had  worked,  probably  because  he 
9  129 


The    Church   of  the  Attakapas 

Among  his  penitents  at  Nantes  was  a  Carmelite 
nun,  Madame  Fidelis,  who  escaped  the  massacre  of 
1792,  and  sought  refuge  first  with  her  family,  who  were 
rich,  and  then  in  Spain.  When  the  evil  days  were 
over,  she  returned,  hoping  to  gain  admittance  to  some 
cloister.  In  Spain  she  had  endured  all  sorts  of  priva- 
tions, and  lost  her  health,  she  said,  by  the  heat  of  the 
Spanish  sun.  She  rented  a  little  room  near  the 
cathedral,  and  never  left  it  but  at  daybreak  to  hear 
Mass.  The  rest  of  the  day  it  was  carefully  barricaded. 
She  was  nearly  ninety  and  very  delicate.  Pere  Jan 
often  visited  her.  One  day  he  found  her  very  sad. 
"  I  have  suffered  agonies,"  said  she,  "because  my  serv- 
ant, being  angry  with  me,  opened  the  doors  and 
windows  and  let  in  the  sun's  rays."  And  she  wept 
bitterly.  The  young  priest  consoled  her  and  promised 
to  come  every  morning  to  see  that  the  sun  was  not 
allowed  to  molest  her.  In  gratitude  she  gave  him  a 
beautiful  gold  cross  of  ancient  workmanship,  which  a 
few  years  before  his  death  he  presented  to  the  writer 
of  this  article.  He  established  a  foundation  Mass  to 
be  said  every  feast  of  Our  Lady  of  Mount  Carmel  for 
poor  Madame  Fidelis  after  her  happy  death,  and  al- 
ways offered  Mass  for  her  soul  on  the  sixteenth  of  July. 

Seven  Visitation  nuns  who  had  been  driven  from 
their  monastery  came  to  Nantes;  Pere  Jan  gave  them 
a  house,  and  found  them  means  to  live  in  community. 

did  not  wish  to  be  identified  with  such  of  his  clerical  countrymen 
as  had  come  to  Louisiana  without  being  sent  or  invited  and  with- 
OHt  the  proper  credentials. 

130 


The    Church  of  the  Attakafas 

Their  Superior,  whom  he  highly  esteemed,  gave  him  a 
curious  silver  cross  that  had  belonged  to  one  of  the 
first  Visitation  mothers.  This  relic  he  bestowed  a  few 
years  ago  on  the  Convent  of  Mercy,  St.  Martinsville. 
Among  these  Visitandines  was"  une  Janseniste,"  whom 
he  could  not  convert,  and  who,  to  his  great  grief,  died 
as  she  had  lived. 

Pere  Jan  was  placed  over  the  Yoniig  Workjncn  at 
Rouen  in  1838,  and  made  aumonier  of  the  Hotel  Dieu 
a  little  later.  Desiring  to  participate  in  the  good  works 
of  the  Trappists,  he  was  aggregated  to  them  in  1842. 
In  1848  he  was  sent  as  missionary  apostolic  to  Hayti, 
and  his  adventures  in  that  isle,  where  he  at  first  gained 
the  good  will  of  the  terrible  Soulouque,  would  fill  a 
volume.  Having  received  from  this  worthy  himself  a 
peremptory  order  to  quit,  he  put  himself  under  the 
protection  of  the  French  consul.  But  he  was  obliged 
to  leave,  and  on  returning  to  France,  in  May,  1849, 
after  visiting  Nantes  and  Paris,  he  spent  some  time  in 
the  Chateau  de  la  Motte  with  his  devoted  friend, 
Madame  la  Marquise  de  St.  Leonard,  partly,  it  is  said, 
to  escape  the  mitre,  and  partly  to  mature  his  plans  for 
devoting  himself  to  the  foreign  mission,  for  which  he 
had  always  had  a  great  desire.  In  January,  1851,  he 
presented  himself  to  Archbishop  Blanc,  who  had  in- 
vited him,  and  was  just  then  in  need  of  a  pastor  for 
St.  Martinsville.  He  merely  passed  through  New 
Orleans  and  never  returned,  devoting  himself  to  the 
welfare  of  his  people  with  an  energy  that  never  re- 
laxed,    He  never  left  his  post  even  for  a  day,  never 

131 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

left  his  house  save  for  the  church,  the  schools,  or  the 
sick.  He  was  a  priest  for  over  sixty  years,  during 
which  his  daily  Mass  was  omitted  only  three  times. 
Tobacco  he  never  touched,  save  a  little  in  the  form  of 
snuff,  and  he  was  a  total  abstainer.  When  not  among 
the  sick  or  in  the  schools,  he  almost  lived  in  the  con- 
fessional.* Money  he  never  mentioned.  If  some 
were  given  him,  it  merely  touched  his  hand  for  a 
blessing,  and  then  went  to  the  poor,  especially  those 
who  had  seen  better  days  — a  numerous  class  in 
Louisiana  since  the  Civil  War.  The  annuity  that  came 
to  him  from  his  patrimony  in  France  went  the  same 
way.  That  he  might  be  better  able  to  help  the  needy, 
his  dress  and  food  and  sleeping-room  were  those  of  a 
pauper.  Though  he  lived  on  corn  meal  and  milk,  his 
constitution  was  wonderfully  strong.  He  walked 
bare-headed  at  every  funeral,  taking  no  notice  of  rain, 
mire,  or  sunshine.  He  attended  sick  calls  many  miles 
away,  and  after  riding  over  the  prairies  almost  all 
night,  would  be  at  the  altar  next  morning.  If  he  were 
delayed,  he  would  say  Mass  at  any  hour,  going  directly 
to  the  church  on  his  return  and  ringing  the  bells  to 
give  notice  to  his  flock.  His  curious  little  buggy 
might  often  be  seen  flying  over  the  prairies,  for  he 
always  kept  a  fleet  horse.     But  he  was  often  obliged 

*This  was  especially  the  case  at  Easter-tide.  Pere  Jan  was  in 
the  confessional  at  daybreak.  About  seven  o'clock  he  left  it  to  say 
Mass.  After  his  thanksgiving  he  returned.  After  each  confession  — 
in  case  of  persons  who  lived  at  a  distance  —  he  would  give  the  ab- 
solved penitent  holy  cornmunion.  He  seldom  broke  his  fast  until 
after  3  p.  M, 

13a 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

to  go  on  foot  where  his  horse  could  not  carry  him. 
Two  days  before  he  died  he  spent  the  night  searching 
for  a  poor  colored  man  that  had  asked  for  his  ministra- 
tions. The  weather  had  been  very  wet.  The  prairie 
verdure  was  hidden  in  many  places  by  muddy  water. 
His  steed,  which  the  boys  used  to  call  the  "  lightning 
flash,"  could  not  "  pull  through  "  the  mud,  but  the  old 
man  did.  Leaving  his  turnout  in  a  quagmire,  he  half 
waded,  half  dragged  himself  through  the  obstructions 
—  and  the  writer  is  inclined  to  think  that  anybody 
who  has  not  been  in  St.  Martinsville  in  a  rainy  season 
knows  not  what  mud  is  —  he  reached  home  coated 
with  dirt  and  wet  to  the  skin,  and,  after  such  a  night, 
was  on  the  altar  in  less  than  fifteen  minutes. 

In  March,  1881,  Pere  Jan  founded  St.  Martin's 
Convent  of  Mercy,  whose  astonishing  success  he  often 
declared  to  be  the  chief  consolation  of  his  old  age. 
This  was  in  a  great  measure  due  to  his  incessant  exer- 
tions in  its  behalf,  and  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  mourned 
him  as  their  kind  father  and  best  benefactor.  They 
were  glad  to  be  able  to  ease  him  a  little  on  their  ar- 
rival by  taking  charge  of  the  First  Communion  and 
Confirmation  classes  which,  including  "  white,  black, 
and  brown,"  numbered  thousands,  and  with  which  he 
had  never  had  help  before. 

When  the  bells,  even  those  of  the  neighboring 
Protestant  churches,  announced  the  sad  news  of  the 
death  of  this  patriarch,  the  whole  village  mourned, 
business  was  suspended  until  after  the  funeral,  stores 
and  offices  closed.  While  his  remains  lay  in  the  church, 

133 


The    Church   of  the  Attakafas 

hundreds  touched  them  with  beads  and  medals  to  pre- 
serve as  relics.  People  spoke  of  miracles  wrought  by 
contact  with  his  precious  earthly  tegument.  And  a 
hardened  sinner  who  had  publicly  defied  God  and  man. 
no  sooner  gazed  on  his  sacred  remains  than  he  wept, 
and  said :  "  I  will  make  my  peace  with  God  as  soon  as 
a  priest  comes  for  the  funeral." 

A  solemn  Rcquion  was  offered  for  him  on  August 
i/th,  and  his  remains  were  laid  beneath  the  sanctuary 
from  which  he  had  blessed  and  instructed  his  people 
for  nearly  forty  years.  The  voice  of  the  people  pro- 
claimed him  a  saint,  and  he  had  certainly  led  the  life  of 
one  —  a  life  of  prayer,  penance,  and  labor.  He  was  a 
man  of  splendid  education  and  brilliant  intellectual 
gifts,  yet,  for  the  love  of  God,  he  chose  to  wear  out 
his  life  among  poor  Cayjuns  and  negroes.  He  had  no 
congenial  society;  few,  if  any,  of  his  parishioners  were 
his  equals  intellectually.  In  manner  he  was  a  perfect 
gentleman,  and  was  as  courteous  and  gentle  with  the 
humblest  of  his  flock  as  with  the  highest  in  the  land. 
He  had  a  remarkably  strong  countenance  and  a  wealth 
of  hair  white  as  cotton  bursting  from  the  pod.  He 
seldom  wore  a  hat  —  the  one  he  had  was  half  as  old  as 
himself;  his  cassock  was  brown  and  threadbare;  but 
though  his  plump  figure  were  draped  with  an  Indian 
blanket,  it  could  not  hide  his  distinguished  air;  the 
culture  derived  from  the  polished  society  in  which  the 
first  half  of  his  life  had  been  spent  remained  to  the 
last.  And,  however  awed  people  were  by  his  undoubted 
sanctity    and    his    perfect    devotion    to  "mankind  of 

134 


The    Churcli  of  tJic  Attakapas 

every  descript'on,"  especially  the  lowliest,  the  universal 
verdict  was,  "  Pere  Jan  is  a  gentleman  —  a  real  gentle- 
man." And  this  from  aristocrats  of  his  flock,  who, 
while  admitting  that  the  king  can  make  noblemen, 
declare  that  "  it  takes  three  hundred  years  to  make  a 
gentleman." 

Save  for  God  and  his  work,  the  loneliness  of  Pere 
Jan's  later  years  would  have  been  terrible.  His  early 
friends,  Lacordaire,  Purcell,  Varin,  and  so  many  others, 
had  all  passed  away.  One  of  his  pupils,  the  aged  Bishop 
de  Goesbriand,  still  survives.  But  they  never  met  in 
America.  How  often  must  the  old  priest,  amid  the 
vast  solitudes  over  which  he  roved  alone  under  the 
midnight  moon,  in  search  of  souls,  fearless  of  the  evil 
men*  or  beasts  that  infested  them  —  how  often  must 
nature  have  sighed  "  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand," 
and,  still  more,  for  "the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still?" 
Or,  rather,  were  not  sufferings  and  privations  joyous 
things  to  him  who  had  borne  the  yoke  of  the  Lord 
from  his  youth?      Did  he  not  realize  a  thousandfold 

*Pere  Jan  was  utterly  fearless  in  every  way.  On  his  first 
coming  to  St.  Martinsville,  his  great  devotedness  to  the  colored, 
bond  and  free,  was  not  relished  by  some  of  his  aristocratic  parish- 
ioners. He  told  the  writer  that  on  several  occasions  men  stood 
up  in  the  church  and  drove  their  slaves  from  the  Communion 
rail.  They  had  evidently  intimidated  some  of  his  predecessors. 
But  Pere  Jan  soon  showed  these  people,  whose  gentlemanly  pro- 
pensities had  been  maturing  for  centuries,  that  the  poorest  slave 
was  as  much  to  him  as  the  highest  magnate,  for  it  was  only  for 
the  immortal  soul  he  cared  in  either.  They  thought  that  negroes 
should  not  be  allowed  to  kneel  at  the  same  railing  as  they,  but 
Pere  Jan  was  no  respecter  of  persons. 

135 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

the  truth  of  the  beautiful  promise:  "Son,  give  me  thy 
youth  and  I  will  guard  thy  old  age?"  Was  he  not  able 
to  say  with  the  spouse  in  the  Canticles:  ''All  things, 
my  beloved,  the  old  and  the  new,  I  have  kept  for 
thee."  No  regret  clouded  the  green  and  beautiful  old 
age  of  this  holy  man.  He  had  given  the  whole  sub- 
stance of  his  house  for  love,  and  despised  it  all  as 
nothing. 

VIII 

Hitherto  we  have  given  sober  history,  but  we  can- 
not wholly  forget  that  poetry  and  romance  have  cast 
their  bewildering  spells  over  the  Attakapas.  It  is  alive 
with  weird  and  fantastic  legends  of  the  man-eating  In- 
dians, the  early  missions,  and  that  beauteous  flower  of 
Acadie,  Evangeline.  For  long  stretches  the  solitude 
of  the  Teche,  whose  meandering  course  lies  through 
"the  green  Opelousas"  and  the  fertile  fields  of  St. 
Martin,  is  as  unbroken  as  when  her  bark  navigated  its 
sluggish  waters.  It  is  spanned  by  arches  of  live  oak 
and  cypress,  whose  dark,  thick  foliage,  draped  with 
Spanish  moss,  gives  the  whole  a  melancholy  yet  most 
poetic  aspect.  The  noise  of  engine  and  paddles  seems 
strangely  discordant  on  the  silent  river.  The  echoes 
of  the  "Canadian  boat  songs"  of  the  men  "who  rowed 
through  the  midnight,  silent  at  times,"  come  down  to 
us  through  the  misty  avenues  of  time.  The  trills  and 
roulades  of  the  mocking  bird  make  the  morning  joy- 
ous. There  is  little  undergrowth  between  the  heavy 
trunks;  but  one  frequently  catches  delicious  vistas  of 

136 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

the  bright  green  and  golden  yellow  of  the  cultivated 
fields  beyond.  Down  to  the  water's  edge  grassy 
slopes  in  many  places  roll  in  graceful  curves,  and  from 
out  the  cool  shadows  of  numberless  groves  comes  the 
sweetest  forest  music. 

Towards  St.  Martinsville  a  sweep  around  a  point 
of  live  oaks,  "bearded  like  a  pard,"  brought  the  boat 
to  "Evangeline's  Bend."  The  immortal  trees  that 
sheltered  the  cannibals  and  waved  their  branches  to 
welcome  the  sad  exiles  of  Acadie,  lean  lovingly  over 
the  bayou  and  embrace  each  other  in  the  skies.  One 
seems  to  be  in  a  gorgeous  cathedral,  whose  roof  is  in- 
terminable.  The  whispering  winds,  the  dim  religious 
light,  the  preternatural  calm  of  these  scenes,  fresh 
from  the  hand  of  God,  make  this  summer-land  of  in- 
tense sunshine  and  cool  shadow  and  quivering  moon- 
light glorious  "beyond  the  muse's  painting." 

Around  the  oldest  town  on  the  Teche  poetry  and 
romance  will  linger  as  long  as  our  gentle  troubadour's 
Evangeline  survives,  whether  we  regard  that  maiden 
as  a  beautiful  creation  of  fiction,  or,  according  to  the 
traditions  of  these  parts,  a  genuine  heroine  who  lived, 
loved,  and  suffered,  and,  like  the  sweet-smelling  balms 
of  the  east,  gave  out  her  best  fragrance  only  when  her 
heart  was  broken.  Upon  the  details  of  the  heartless 
eviction  of  her  people  romance  has  lovingly  seized  and 
the  poet  has  turned  the  magic  light  of  his  genius,  till 
the  gilded  halo  of  song  and  story  veils,  as  with  a 
beauteous  haze,  the  harsh  outlines  of  sombre  historic 
truth.     Evangeline,  with  Father  Felician,  began  her 

137 


The    Churcli   of  the  Attakapas 

search  for  Gabriel,  the  silent  hero  of  the  tale.  They 
accompanied  a  band  of  exiles  down  the  Mississippi, 
passed  the  Golden  Coast,  and  entered  Bayou  Plaque- 
mine.     Her  heart  told  her  that 

"  Through  these  shadowy  aisles  had  Gabriel  wandered  before  her." 

Tradition  asserts  that  their  meeting  with  Basil,  the 
blacksmith,  took  place  at  St.  Martinsville.  In  the  first 
church*  erected  here  she  heard  Father  Felician's  Mass 
ere  she  set  out  again  on  her  sorrowful  quest.  In  front 
of  it  was  the p/ajoa  or  square,  still  unfenced,  and,  save 
for  a  bronze  statue  of  Pere  Jan,f  unadorned,  as  when 
her  dark  eyes  looked  their  last  upon  it.  Around  the 
church  was  the  parish  cemetery.  Several  graves  and 
ruined  tombs  may  still  be  seen  to  the  right,  though 
since  the  opening  of  a  new  cemetery  —  now  an  old 
one —  no  interments  have  been  made  near  the  church. 

Our  first  glimpse  of  St.  Martinsville  was  idyllic. 
The  evening  was  of  perfect  clearness ;  the  sun  was 
setting  slowly,  and  the  young  moon  rising  as  we 
passed  the  old-fashioned  drawbridge,  and  moved  upon 
the  shining  waters  beneath  the  shadow  of  hoary  trees, 
garlanded  with  wreaths  of  gray  moss.  The  repose  of 
the  scene  was  preternatural.  Save  the  lowing  of  the 
Attakapas  kine  on  the  distant  prairie,  and  the  tinkling 
of  the  sheep-bells,  no  sound  broke  the  solemn  stillness. 
The  white  spire  of  the  old  church  on  its  red  base  stood 

*  The  old  people  say  this  church  was  burned. 

t  This  statue  was  erected  by  the  exertions  of  Pere  Jan's  suc- 
cessor. Rev.  A.  B.  Langlois,  who,  besides  being  an  excellent 
priest,  is  an  accomplished  botanist. 

138 


The    Chiircli   of   tJie   Attakapas 

out  finely  against  the  darkening  sky,  the  CROSS, 
which  has  stood  aloft  in  this  place  for  a  century  and 
a  half,  keeping  loving  watch  over  all.  It  was  high 
water,  and  everything  on  the  banks  was  mirrored  in 
the  clear  depths.  We  sang  softly  the  Acadian  hymn 
to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  our  Savior.  And  the  writer 
pledged  herself  to  return  to  these  fairy  scenes  by  dip- 
ping her  hand  in  the  Teche  and  tasting  of  its  waters. 
For  whoever  drinks  of  these  waters  must  revisit  its 
umbrageous  shores  ;  yea,  as  a  sterner  proverb  hath  it, 
must  return  thitherto  die. 

The  cloisters  of  a  Carthusian  monastery  are  not 
more  silent  than  St.  Martinsville.  A  thriving  outpost 
when  most  of  the  great  cities  of  our  country  were  not, 
it  seems  now,  in  the  serene  evening  of  life,  dozing  over 
the  bright  memories  of  the  past.  The  broad  dusty 
thoroughfares  felt  scarcely  a  footfall.  The  stores  were 
open,  but  no  one  was  in  them.  Around  a  strongly 
built  brick  church  the  town  lies.  The  architecture  is 
of  a  past  era.  Cottages  shingle-roofed  and  bricked 
between  the  uprights,  close  Creole  doors  and  shutters, 
an  occasional  tile  roof  —  it  was  like  stepping  into  the 
Attakapas  capital  some  eighty  years  ago.  On  Sunday 
this  other  village  of  Grand  Pre  shook  off  its  slumber- 
ous spirit,  and  the  charming  mist  of  poesy  seemed  to 
evaporate.  Hundreds  of  carriages  arrive  from  all 
points  of  the  prairie,  pirogues  anchor  in  the  bayou, 
cavalcades  of  horsemen  on  Creole  tackles  come  troop- 
ing in  from  the  various  roads  in  clouds  of  yellow  dust, 
processions  of  bright-eyed   children  wind   out   of  the 

139 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

convent  gardens,  and  by  ten  o'clock  the  spacious 
church  is  full  of  "  white,  black,  and  brown,"  summoned 
by  the  sweet-sounding  quintet  of  bells,  of  which  the 
old  place  is  proud.  Mass  does  not  begin  directly. 
Pere  Jan  is  hearing  confessions.  About  eleven  High 
Mass  begins.  The  choir  is  good,  but  the  strongest 
voice  in  the  village  belongs  to  the  saintly  octogena- 
rian. 

No  non-Catholic  place  of  worship  stands  within 
the  limits  of  St.  Martinsville.  It  is,  to  a  great  extent, 
French  in  race  and  feeling,  though  not  without  Fitz- 
geralds,  O'Rorkes,  and  other  names  of  Celtic  origin, 
which,  however,  have  long  since  been  thoroughly 
Gallicized.  New  settlers  have  come  with  the  railroad, 
and  every  one  now  speaks  English.  The  women  have 
discarded  the  Spanish  mantilla,  universal  when  the 
writer  first  knew  St.  Martinsville,  and  taken  to  modern 
millinery. 

But  nothing  can  rob  the  old  place  of  the  glamour 
of  poesy  that  envelops  it.  Within  the  convent  square 
is  Evangeline's  tree,  a  giant  oak,  from  whose  shade 
"  the  maiden  descended  down  to  the  river's  brink, 
where  the  boatmen  were  already  waiting."  Some- 
times in  the  cool  of  even',  when  the  moon  is  growing 
old,  on  dit,  a  slight  figure  with  sad  eyes  and  streaming 
hair  is  seen  gliding  among  the  shadows  of  this  oak 
and  among  the  ruined  tombs  of  the  ancient  cemetery 
by  the  tall,  red  church.  And  the  children  hurry  past 
these  haunted  spots  with  terror  in  their  wide,  dark 
eyes ;  even  at  noon,  they  say :  "  Perhaps  Evangeline 

140 


The    Church  of  the  Attakapas 

is  under  the  convent  oak,  for  she,  too,  was  a  Sister 
of  Mercy."  And,  verily,  when  the  moonbeams  assume 
fantastic  shapes,  flitting  among  its  shadows,  imagina- 
tion may  easily  create  for  us  once  more  that  fair  girl, 
all  in  flowing  white,  her  soft,  black  eyes  gleaming 
through  her  nut-brown  hair;  and  with  true  poetic 
feeling  cordially  would  we  welcome  such  a  ghost. 

"  Faded  was  she  and  old,"  says  the  poet,  "  when  in 
disappointment  her  long  journey  ended."  But  never 
is  Evangeline  faded  or  old  to  us.  To  us  she  is  always 
beautiful,  and  young,  and  "  fair  to  behold,  that  maiden 
of  seventeen  summers."  We  see  her  in  the  summer  of 
All  Saints,  "  the  sunshine  of  St.  Eulalie,"  where  "  the 
simple  Acadian  farmers  dwelt  in  the  love  of  God  and 
man."  We  see  her  on  the  flowery  surf  of  the  Atta- 
kapas prairie,  now  dotted  with  substantial  plantation 
homes,  and  huge  sugar-houses.  We  see  her  when  the 
dying 

"Looked  up  into  her  face,  and  thought,  indeed,  to  behold  there 
Gleajns  of  celestial  light  encircle  her  forehead  with  splendor." 

We  see  her  as  a  fair  wraith  ascending  from  her 
northern  grave  and  revisiting  the  land  of  the  cypress 
and  myrtle. 

And  to  this  one  fair  spirit,  so  thoroughly  Catholic, 
and  so  touchingly  described  in  the  exquisite  imagery 
of  the  poet,  more  than  to  any  belted  knight  or  squire, 
the  Church  of  the  Attakapas  owes  the  dreamy  mist  of 
poesy  that  floats  about  her  groves  and  waters,  and  the 
halo  that  gleams  from  the  oldest  temple  of  God  on 
the  Attakapas  prairies. 

141- 


FORTY    YEARS    IN    THE    AMERICAN 
WILDERNESS 

I 

'he  song  that  pictures  Fionula,  King  Lir's 
lonely  daughter,  sighing  for  the  beaming  of 
the  day-star,  craving,  with  tearful  eagerness, 
to  hear  the  sweet  bells  of  heaven,  whose  music  was  to 
announce  to  her  the  glad  tidings  that  her  spirit  was 
freed  from  its  thraldom,  is  assuredly  one  of  Moore's 
finest.  By  some  magic  spell,  this  princess  was  impris- 
oned in  the  form  of  a  swan,  and  doomed  to  wander 
over  the  bright  waters  of  Eire's  fair  lakes  and  streams, 
until  the  star  of  Christianity  should  arise  over  the  Isle 
of  Destiny,  and  the  bells  for  the  first  Mass  ring  out  in 
joyous  peals  through  the  morning  sunshine: 

"  When  will  the  day-star,  mildly  springing. 
Warm  our  isle  with  peace  and  love? 
When  will  heaven,  its  sweet  bell  ringing, 
Call  my  spirit  to  the  fields  above?  " 

Why  do  we  open  with  this  exquisitely  poetic  leg- 
end the  unholy  subject  we  are  about  to  treat?  What 
have  the  touching  wailings  of  this  royal  virgin  to  do 
with  our  story?  Certainly  no  glamour  of  poetry,  no 
witchery  of  romance,  have  cast  their  spells  of  enchant- 
ment over  the  beginning,  or  the  progress,  of  the  hid- 
eous   burlesque   of    religion   which    lured   to   a  doom 

X42 


Forty    Tears  in   the  American    Wilderness 

worse  than  death  so  many  beings  made  in  the  image 
and  likeness  of  God. 

Though  of  them  may  be  said,  as  of  their  chosen 
prototypes  in  the  desert :  "  They  always  err  in  their 
hearts,  and  have  not  known  my  ways,"  yet  there  was 
an  element  of  natural  goodness  and  probity  among 
the  so-called  "  Latter-Day  Saints."  Many  soon  learned, 
not,  indeed,  to  prefer  the  gates  of  their  Zion  to  all 
the  tabernacles  of  Jacob,  but  to  abhor  them  as  the 
gates  of  hell,  gates  to  which  the  poet  alluded  when  he 
said:  "Who  enters  here  leaves  hope  behind." 

Many  years  ago,  when  he  who  styled  himself  king, 
prophet,  and  priest  of  Mormondom,  was  in  the  zenith 
of  his  power,  two  religieuses,  going  west  on  some  busi- 
ness of  their  order,  stopped  at  Salt  Lake  City.  They 
spoke  with  several  of  the  wretched  women  of  the 
place,  and  listened  kindly  to  their  tales  of  sorrow. 
One  of  these  abject  beings,  who  was  strangely  affected 
by  their  presence,  spoke  to  the  following  effect :  "  I 
have  been  long  looking  for  this.  If  these  holy  women 
settle  among  us,  our  atmosphere  will  become  purer. 
And  since  they  have  come  hither,  even  for  a  short 
time,  our  religion  will  never  again  be  to  us  what  it 
was  before  their  coming."  And  she  burst  into  a  pas- 
sion and  tempest  of  tears,  which,  she  said,  were  of  joy 
rather  than  sorrow. 

Had  this  unhappy  creature  been  sighing,  like  the 
princess  in  the  song,  for  the  arrival  of  something 
better  and  purer  than  her  surroundings?  And  was 
the  advent  of  these  dark-robed  daughters  of  the  Faith 

143 


Forty   Years  in  the  American   Wilderness 

a  sign  unto  her?  Unfortunately,  we  were  not  able  to 
follow  up  her  history.  But,  by  some  occult  associa- 
tion of  ideas,  the  circumstance  recalled  to  our  mind 
the  beauteous  white  bird  in  whose  graceful  form  was 
hidden  the  virgin  daughter  of  the  royal  Lir,  singing, 
with  the  swan's  sweetest  notes,  to  the  stormy  river: 

"  Silent,  O  Moyle  !  be  the  roar  of  thy  water, 

Break  not,  ye  breezes  !  your  chain  of  repose. 
While,  murmuring  mournfully,  Lir's  lonely  daughter 
Tells  to  the  night-star  her  tale  of  woes." 

II 

If  thou  seekest  a  beautiful  vale,  circumspir.e,  here 
it  is;  behold  it!  Perhaps  "there  is  not  in  this  wide 
world  a  valley  so  sweet."  We  have  all  heard:  "See 
Naples  and  die."  And  a  prelate,  whose  poetic  soul 
revels  in  the  beautiful,  wrote  of  another  charming 
spot:  "After  Killarney,  heaven."  We  say:  See  Salt 
Lake  City,  and  live  and  admire.  Keep  the  lovely 
picture  in  your  mind's  eye  until  your  dying  day.  But 
for  this  go  not  down  into  it.  Look  at  it  from  the 
lawns  and  orchards  of  Camp  Douglas  or  Prospect 
Hill,  or  from  any  bench  or  plateau  on  the  hillside.  It 
lies  at  the  base  of  the  Wasatch,  sloping  towards  the 
west  and  south.  It  is  girdled  with  mountains,  some 
bleak  and  forbidding  in  aspect,  others  of  emerald 
brightness,  and  superb  in  their  beauty  and  symmetry. 
In  the  early  summer  sunlight  the  skies  are  blue,  the 
air  balmy.  Clustering  trees  of  every  shade  of  green 
half   hide  the  wide-gabled  houses.      The  bushes  are 

144 


Forty   Tears   in  tJiv  American    Wilderness 

laden  with  blossoms,  and  fragrance.  The  limbs  of  the 
fruit  trees  are  pink  and  yellow  with  flowers.  The 
amber  air  is  filled  as  with  some  delicate  aroma  by  the 
upspringing  blossoms.  Quaint  abodes,  like  toy- 
houses,  peep  from  between  the  trees.  There  are  seas 
of  waving  corn,  and  green  patches  of  alfalfa,  and  lazy, 
lowing  kine,  and  wide  stretches  of  pastoral  country 
dotted  with  sheep,  in  the  broad  valley  that  slopes  to- 
wards the  distant  Salt  Lake  —  the  dead  sea  of  this  new 
Palestine.  The  peaks  and  battlements  of  the  far-away 
hills,  white  with  eternal  show,  the  turtle-like  back  o£ 
the  spacious  tabernacle,  the  rows  of  Lombardy  poplars, 
which  form  huge,  whispering  walls  between  the  abodes 
of  the  "  saints,"  and  the  jungles  of  sunflower  and  golden 
rod  that  brighten  the  green  sward,  give  such  changeful 
effects  of  radiant  coloring  as  are  rarely  seen  outside  of 
the  tropics.  The  panorama  of  lake,  mountain,  valley, 
residences,  gardens,  public  buildings,  is  kaleidoscopic, 
ever-changing,  and  full  of  charming  contrasts.  Long 
lines  of  fruit  trees,  trim  white  houses,  tideless,  dreamy, 
slumbering  waters  that  flash  every  hue  of  the  rain- 
bow,—  the  Oquirrh  Mountains,  now  like  feudal  castles, 
again  with  splintered  peaks,  gilded  by  the  burning 
sun,  —  sometimes  all  this  is  seen  as  it  were  swimming 
in  the  air.  The  amber  haze  mellows  every  outline. 
The  hills  are  wedded  by  wondrous  bridges.  The 
sluggish  Jordan  leaps  to  the  inland  sea,  whose  calm 
bosom  shimmers  in  the  sunshine.  It  is  that  beautiful 
optical  illusion  — the  mirage.  The  blue  heron,  the 
sacred  pelican,  the  white  sea-gull,  the  graceful  swan, 

lo  145 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American   Wilderness 

the  restless  prairie-chicken,- -  on  a  closer  view  you 
may  see  some  of  them  poised  in  the  air,  or  breasting 
the  waters,  or  resting  on  the  swamp,  or  balancing  their 
lithe  forms  on  some  sparkling  pyramid  of  salt,  ap- 
parently enjoying  the  picturesqueness  of  the  scene, 
and,  like  ourselves,  fascinated  by  its  beauty. 

Laid  down  between  the  feet  of  the  mountains,  amid 
groves  of  cottonwood,  maple,  and  oak,  and  rows  of 
sentry-like  poplars,  with  the  great  Salt  Lake  gleaming 
like  sunshine  on  the  distant  horizon,  is  the  "Temple 
City,"  the  "  Mecca  of  the  West,"  the  New  Jerusalem, 
which  has  charmed  every  eye  that  ever  rested  on  its 
varied  beauties^ at  a  distance. 

Ill 

Father  de  Smet  one  day  met  Brigham  Young 
and  his  scouts  wandering  about  the  haunts  of  his 
Indians,  and  believing  them  to  be  immigrants  in 
search  of  homes,  he  directed  them  to  a  canon  many 
miles  in  length,  stating  that  at  its  end  they  would 
find  a  valley  which  the  hand  of  man  could  transform 
into  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey.  This  terri- 
tory, which  the  Mormons  entered  July  24,  1847,  ^^s 
bleak  and  forbidding  in  aspect;  the  serrated  peaks  of 
the  Wasatch  Mountains  bold  and  rugged;  the  briny 
inland  sea,  sullen  and  listless,  or  bright  and  stirring, 
according  to  wind  and  weather;  the  dreary  waste 
adorned  with  tufts  of  sandgrass  and  bristling  with 
gray-green  sage;  the  stillness,  unbroken  save  by  the 
screaming  of  wild  birds,  the  whistling   of  the  cafion 

146 


Forty    Years  in  the  American    Wilderness 

winds,  or  the  barking  of  the  prowling  coyotes;  — 
"this  was  their  welcome  home." 

So  sure  was  Captain  James  Bridger  of  the  peren- 
nial barrenness  of  the  soil  that  he  offered  a  thousand 
dollars  for  every  bushel  of  corn  wrung  from  its  fast- 
nesses. But  Mr.  Young  was  better  informed.  No 
doubt  Father  de  Smet,  who  at  that  time  was  ignorant 
of  the  peculiar  views  with  which  he  imbued  his  satel- 
lites, knew  what  the  Indians  knew,  that  where  the 
sage-bush  abounded  corn  would  grow,  and  enlightened 
him  as  to  that  fact.  When  he  reached  the  valley,  he 
told  his  followers  that  the  Lord  had  commanded  a  halt. 
But  he  knew  well  this  was  the  last  spot  at  which  they 
could  stop ;  the  bleak,  inhospitable,  alkali  desert  was 
beyond  it. 

Many  disciples  came  hither  in  the  dusty  wagons, 
drawn  by  slow,  patient  oxen,  that  passed  in  trains 
over  the  desert  and  through  the  rocky  defiles,  and, 
later,  some  of  the  wealthier  by  the  pony  express  or 
the  lumbering  stage-coach.  Some  escaped  from  the 
holy  city,  despite  the  argus-eyed  Brigham  and  his 
myriads  of  spies.  One  hundred  and  fifty  of  these 
gave  Father  de  Smet  a  dreadful  account  of  the  in- 
ternal and  external  condition  of  Zion.  But  the 
prophet  had  defenders.  On  March  20,  1850,  Colonel 
Kane,  one  of  the  many  whom  his  oily  tongue  had 
deluded,  lecturing  at  Philadelphia  before  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Historical  Society,  "  On  the  Mormons,"  declared 
that  he  had  found  Brigham  Young  "  sharing  sorrow 
\vith  the  sorrowful  and  poverty  with  the  poor,"  and 

147 


Forty    Years  in   the  American    Wilderness 

extolled  him  as  a  man  of  rare  natural  endowments, 
which  he  undeniably  was.  In  June  appeared  a  Mor- 
mon paper,  TJic  Dcscret  Ncivs,'^  and  on  September 
20th,  of  the  same  year,  an  auspicious  year  for  the 
prophet,  President  Millard  Filmore  appointed  him 
Governor  of  Utah,  partly  through  the  recommenda- 
tions of  Colonel  Kane.  This  at  once  gave  him  a  posi- 
tion and  an  influence  of  which  he  made  the  most. 

Utah  was  part  of  the  territory  acquired  from 
Mexico  in  1848,  and  originally  contained  225,000 
square  miles.  The  name  is  of  Indian  derivation,  and 
is  said  to  signify  "home  on  the  mountain."  Salt 
Lake  Cityf  was  incorporated  June  II,  1851,  its  popu- 
lation being  nearly  5,000.  Missionaries  were  sent  in 
every  direction  to  increase  the  flock.  "  Stakes  in 
Zion,"  as  Mormon  settlements  are  called,  were  es- 
tablished in  several  places.  They  were  then  much 
more  arbitrary  in  their  conditions  than  now.  The 
peculiar  feature  of  the  sect,  which  had  been  more 
than  suspected,  but  always  emphatically  denied,  had 
not  yet  been  made  public.  The  revelation  establish- 
ing the  "patriarchal  order  of  marriage  "  is  said  to  have 
been  made  to  Joseph  Smith,  July  12,  1843.  Smith's 
widow  and  four  sons  denounced  it  as  a  forgery,  and 
headed  a  schism.     In   1845,  "^  formal  denial  was  given 

*This  paper  is  the  official  organ  of  Mormonism.  Deseret  is 
understood  by  the  Mormons  to  mean  "home  of  the  honeybee." 
Governor  Young  wanted  Utah  admitted  into  the  Union  as  the 
"  State  of  Deseret." 

tin  1880  its  population  was  over  20,000;  at  present  it  is 
nearly  45,000,  of  whom  over  one-third  are  Gentiles, 

148 


JForiy    Years   in   tJic   Aii/cricdi/    W'i/dcrNcss 

by  the  "Church"  in  these  strong  words:  "Inasmuch 
as  the  Church  of  Christ  has  been  reproached  with  the 
crimes  of  polygamy,  .  .  .  we  declare  that  we  be- 
lieve that  one  man  should  have  but  one  wife."  Yet  in 
1852,  "the  revelation  of  the  celestial  law  of  mar- 
riage" was  made  public. 

The  next  year  the  Spanish  wall,  nine  miles  long, 
was  built  of  mud  and  adobes  around  the  little  city. 
Every  property  was  surrounded  by  a  high  wall  of  mud 
and  cobble-stones.  Brigham's  quarters,  in  particular, 
were  walled  in  like  Moorish  fortifications.  Some  of 
these  have  crumbled  away,  and  others  have  given 
place  to  less  unsightly  fences.  They  were  intended 
to  keep  out  Canaanitish  Indians  and  ungodly  Baby- 
lonians ;  but  they  were  needed  to  keep  in  the  discon- 
tented victims  of  the  abhorrent  system  now  forced 
upon  the  better  element.  For,  be  it  recorded  to  the 
honor  of  human  nature,  polygamy  met  with  strenuous 
opposition  from  men  and  women  —  opposition  una- 
vailing before  the  powerful  will  and  iron  hand  of  the 
man  who  riveted  it  upon  his  law  and  gospel.  Neither 
did  it  ever  become  universal  —  it  was  practised  only 
by  a  small  fraction  of  the  population.  Many  defec- 
tions were  due  to  the  engrafting  of  it  on  the  Mormon 
creed,  and  those  who  remained,  agreeing  to  differ  with 
Governor  Young,  were  obliged  to  keep  their  opinions 
to  themselves  or  get  beyond  the  radius  of  his  circle. 
But,  apart  from  what  was  euphoniously  styled  "  celes- 
tial marriage,"  the  Mormons  would  scarcely  be  allowed 
to  rest  in  peace  in  any  country.     They  were   every- 

149 


Forty    Tears  iii  the  American    Wilderness 

where  accused  of  incendiarism,  fraudulent  dealings, 
and  other  crimes,  and  were  often  in  open  conflict  with 
the  State  authorities.  Politically,  their  vote  would 
always  be  a  unit,  and,  cast  on  either  side,  would  secure 
the  victory.  Any  one  party's  woie,  plus  the  Mormon 
vote,  could  put  in  that  party's  candidate.  As  a  factor 
in  local  politics,  the  Mormon  vote  could  always  be  re- 
lied on  to  control  elections.  Even  to-day  (October, 
1889)  the  Governor  of  Arizona,  in  his  official  report, 
attacks  the  Mormons,  and  says :  "  They  are  a  curse  to 
the  country."  He  charges  them  with  sending  colonies 
to  other  territories  in  order  to  hold  the  balance  of 
power,  and  declares  that  they  vote  just  as  the  interests 
of  their  church  dictate.  Hence  the  feeling  against 
them  in  Illinois,  which  culminated  in  open  warfare. 
The  charter  of  their  city,  Nauvoo,  a  place  of  some 
15,000  inhabitants,  was  repealed  in  1845.  Joseph 
Smith  and  his  brother  Hiram  were  killed  fighting  a 
mob,  and  the  whole  Mormon  population  expelled  from 
the  State. 

They  crossed  the  Mississippi  to  Iowa.  Later  they 
crossed  that  State  to  the  Missouri.  Camps  of  Israel, 
as  their  resting-places  were  called,  were  laid  on  the 
site  of  the  city  now  known  as  Council  BlufTs.  Near 
Omaha  were  the  famous  Winter  Quarters,  to  which 
the  prophet  came  more  than  once  in  the  early  days  of 
the  Utah  invasion.  Florence  now  occupies  the  site  of 
the  deserted  quarters.  From  this  starting  point,  band 
after  band  of  Mormons  moved  in  wagon-trains  towards 
the  promised  land.     Year  after  year  these  Ishmaelites, 

150 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

their  hand  against  every  man  and  every  man's  hand 
against  them,  wintered  in  this  obscure  corner  of 
Nebraska,  and  in  early  spring  set  out  on  their  perilous 
journey  over  the  American  desert.  These  expeditions 
sometimes  had  a  versifier.  Here  is  a  stanza  of  a  song 
composed  by  a  Mormon  woman,  Eliza  Snow: 

"  The  time  of  winter  now  is  o'er. 
There's  verdure  on  the  plain. 
We  leave  our  sheltering  roofs  once  more 
And  to  our  tents  again." 

IV 

While  the  bulk  of  the  new  sect  migrated  to  Utah, 
many  remained  in  their  earlier  haunts,  especially  about 
Council  Bluffs,  then  called  Kanesville,  from  Colonel 
Kane,  who  organized  the  Mormon  battalion  for 
Governor  Young.  These  were  mostly  followers  of 
Joseph  Smith,  son  of  the  originator  of  the  sect,  who 
claimed  to  be  the  rightful  head  of  the  church,  and 
deemed  Brigham  an  usurper.  A  dividing  line  was 
drawn  very  early  between  the  Josephites  and  the 
Utah  Mormons,  but  many  of  these  latter  only  toler- 
ated,  from  motives  of  policy,  the  religion  and  politics 
of  the  spurious  prophet. 

It  was  reserved  for  the  nineteenth  century  to  pro- 
duce a  sect*  which  revived  some  of  the  worst  horrors 

*  The  Book  of  Mormon,  called  by  one  of  the  "  apostles"  the 
Golden  Bible,  is  said  to  have  been  taken  from  a  sort  of  romance  by 
Rev.  Mr.  Spaulding,  which  contains  a  supposititious  history  of  the 
wanderings  of  the  Lost  Tribes,  and  their  final  appearance  in 
America.  Save  where  it  quotes  from  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  it  is  a 
tissue  of  absurdities  and  contradictions. 

151 


Forty    Teat's  in  the  American    Wilderness 

of  the  lowest  type  of  paganism.  The  leaders  of  this 
loathsome  caricature  of  a  theocracy,  -while  professing 
to  be  divinely  inspired,  led  lives  diametrically  opposed 
to  those  of  the  men  and  women  usually  selected  by 
heaven  as  the  medium  of  celestial  communications  to 
their  fellow-mortals.  They  did  not  belong  to  the 
Negro,  Indian,  or  Mongolian,  or  any  of  the  races  com- 
monly ranked  below  the  Caucasian. 

The  controlling  authority  of  the  Mormon  church 
has  always  been  exercised  by  Americans  of  Anglo- 
Saxon  lineage.  It  is  even  said  that  several  of  the  first 
"Twelve  Apostles"  came  from  families  that  had  parti- 
cipated in  the  struggle  for  national  independence.  It 
is  not,  therefore,  quite  correct  to  speak  of  Mormonism 
as  an  alien  organization.  It  was  always  wholly  non- 
Catholic.  Even  in  seeking  recruits,  the  Mormons 
rather  avoided  Catholic  countries.  Spaniards,  Italians, 
French,  Irish,  Mexicans,  are  sought  in  vain  among  the 
Latter-Day  Saints.  Its  disciples  were  drawn  mainly 
from  the  lowest  grades  of  non-Catholic  nations.  But 
into  this  seething  vortex  men  and  women  of  ordinary 
education,  and  a  few  of  more  than  average  ability,  from 
the  Old  World  and  the  New,  have  been  drawn.  Time 
and  again  have  deluded  creatures  turned  their  backs  on 
home,  friends,  and  country,  to  seek  salvation  in  this  awful 
fanaticism.  The  Catholic  faith  seems  to  have  been  the 
only  (Egis  capable  of  protecting  souls  from  this  stu- 
pendous parody  on  things  decent,  fitting,  and  spiritual. 

Religiously  a  fraud,  chronologically  it  was  an  an- 
achronism, and  one  wonders  how  the  fanciful   tales  of 

152 


Forty    Years  in  the  A))ierican    Wilderness 

its  origin  and  progress  ever  obtained  credence.  In 
1820  Joseph  Smith,  an  illiterate  lad  of  fifteen,  sees  a 
glorious  vision.  In  1823,  the  angel  Moroni,*  in  a 
white  robe,  and  with  a  countenance  like  lightning, 
makes  known  to  him  the  existence  of  metal  plates 
covered  with  an  ancient  record.  After  his  marriage  to 
Emma  Hale,  in  1827,  an  angel  delivered  to  him  the 
plates  of  the  book  of  Mormon,  which  had  been  buried 
1,400  years.  On  these  were  written  the  law,  in  several 
ancient  languages.  By  the  application  of  the  seer 
stone  or  peep  stone,  and  a  sort  of  spectacles  called  the 
Urim  and  Thummin,  Smith  read  them  ofT  in  English, 
sitting  meanwhile  behind  a  blanket,  that  the  sacred 
.records  might  be  screened  from  profane  eyes.  All 
this  is  reported  to  have  happened  in  Ontario  County, 
New  York.  Several  who  swore  to  its  truth,  afterwards 
declared  the  falsity  of  their  testimony.  On  the  walls 
of  the  Assembly  House  these  romantic  details  are 
illustrated  by  a  series  of  colored  daubs.  The  wingless 
angel  shows  his  treasure  to  Joseph,  under  a  tree  which 
bears  a  provoking  resemblance  to  the  Charter  Oak  of 
the  school  histories ;  Aaron  anoints  him  with  the 
order  of  Melchisedeck  ;  Peter,  James,  and  John  elevate 
him  to  higher  privileges;  John  the  Baptist  confers 
other    favors.      A    Scotchman   who  has   been    in   Salt 

*  Moroni  is  described  as  son  of  the  propliet  Mormon,  from 
whom  the  sect  takes  its  name,  but  the  Mormons  say  their  correct 
name  is  "  Latter-Day  Saints."'  The  Scotch  gentleman  who  acts 
as  beadle  in  the  tabernacle  informed  the  writer  that  Mormon 
angels  have  no  wings. 


Forty    Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

Lake  City  some  thirty  or  forty  years,  and  bewails  the 
days  of  its  greatness  when  Brigham  was  sole  ruler, 
explains  these  mystifying  pictures,  and  his  hearers  are 
as  wise  when  he  concludes  as  they  were  before  he 
started.  How  such  absurd  ravings  could  attract,  or, 
having  attracted,  satisfy,  disciples  is  simply  inexplicable. 

Yet,  for  many  whose  feet  rested  not  on  the  Rock 
of  Peter,  the  fables  of  the  ubiquitous  Mormon  propa- 
gandists possessed  an  alluring  charm.  The  Happy 
Valley,  the  City  of  the  Blest,  the  true  and  only  Zion 
"  where  indeed  the  wicked  cease  from  troubling  and 
the  weary  are  at  rest,"  but,  above  all,  the  great 
prophet  who  was  to  the  excited  imaginations  of  the 
earlier  pilgrims  a  sort  of  sanctified  grand  lama  or  great 
mogul,  did  not  the  overworked,  ill-paid  toiler  of 
"  efTete  "  Europe  long  to  enter  his  home  of  perennial 
sunshine,*  whose  skies  were  always  blue,  and  whose 
fields  wore  eternal  verdure  ?  Was  he  not  eager  to 
breathe  the  same  air  with  the  holy  patriarch,  that 
man  of  heavenly  (?)  visions,  and  to  worship  in  the 
place  where  his  feet  had  trod  ? 

Happily,  many  were  disillusioned.  Some  who  went 
out  in  families  and  had  wealth  and  position  at  their 
back,  returned  home  disgusted  and  humiliated.  That 
many  were  too  poor  to  retrace  their  steps,  it  would  be 
foolish  and   inconsequent   to   deny.     For  them    there 

*In  point  of  fact.  Salt  Lake  City  (4,354  feet  above  sea  level)  is 
intensely  cold  in  winter  and  intensely  hot  in  summer.  It  is  only 
now  beginning  to  be  drained.  For  many  months  of  the  year  it  is 
perhaps  the  dustiest  spot  on  earth. 

154 


Forty    Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

was  no  release.  Poverty  and  superstition  helped  to 
force  them  into  a  vise,  and  while  some  were  ever  in 
rebellion  against  their  pitiless  fate,  others  seemed  to 
grow  accustomed  to  it.  Neglected  wives  and  mothers 
may  have  accepted  their  bitter  lot  with  unsanctified 
resignation.  Some  were  deluded  into  the  belief  that 
the  forlorn  lives  to  which  they  were  condemned  were 
crosses  from  heaven  to  win  them  crowns  of  glory  ever- 
lasting. Homes  were  dreary,  though  full  of  children  ; 
wives  were  widowed,  but  not  by  death.  With  pathetic 
deceit  some  declare  they  are  happy  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, but  the  tear-dimmed  eye  and  the  an- 
guished countenance  give  the  lie  to  such  declarations. 
There  is  a  terrible  pathos  in  the  lives  of  women,  other- 
wise respectable  and  intelligent,  who  find  themselves 
in  the  interior  of  households  directed  by  the  shining 
lights  of  Mormonism. 

Mrs.  C ,  who  lives  near  Temple  Block,  a  staunch 

Mormon,  but  not  a  polygamist,  affirms  in  the  strong- 
est terms  that  there  is  no  happiness  in  any  polygamous 
family  of  her  acquaintance.  The  wife  of  a  bishop,  who 
came  to  her  for  consolation,  said:  "  For  sake  of  peace 
and  good-will,  I  have  tried  to  like  the  wretch  who 
usurped  my  place,  but  found  it  impossible.  There 
are  no  feelings  in  my  home  but  feelings  of  hate  and 
envy."     "Those  who    profess   to    be  happy  in  their 

plural    relations,"    added    Mrs.    C ,    "are    cunning 

women  who  know  how  to  get  cloaks  and  dresses  by 
wholesale  from  their  husbands,  while  the  more  honest 
cannot  get  them  by  retail." 

155 


Fofty    Tears  in  the-  American    Wilderness 

When  the  women  believe  in  the  absurd  teachings 
of  Mormonism, —  how  the  air  is  filled  with  spirits  wait- 
ing to  be  born,  how  such  beings  can  select  the  time 
and  place  of  their  birth  into  earthly  probation,  how 
they  are  eager  to  be  born  in  Zion,  how  the  millennial 
dispensation  is  at  hand,  after  which  no  more  spirits 
can  be  reclaimed, —  that  the  patriarchal  order  into 
which  they  were  given  in  marriage  is  to  be  eternal  in 
heaven,  with  the  rewards  and  emoluments  thereof, — 
they  are  upheld  under  the  tortures  of  their  lives  by 
hope.  But  that  good  and  bright  women  could  ever 
have  been  satisfied  with  such  speculations,  or  with 
the  men  that  taught  them,  is  simply  inconceivable. 

Lofty  enthusiasm  was,  indeed,  simulated  by  fa- 
natics or  hypocrites;  but  being  only  simulated,  its 
fruits  were  as  Dead  Sea  apples.  Where  materialism 
of  the  lowest  type  prevailed,  no  ideal  world  of  beauty 
could  exist.  "There  is  something  dry  in  the  reality 
of  things,"  said  Madame  de  Stacl,  a  little  peevishly, 
"  and  we  try  in  vain  to  get  rid  of  it  in  our  daily  affairs." 
What  would  she  have  said  had  she  been  able  to  look 
behind  the  Eagle  Gate?  There  realism  went  beyond 
dryness.  Disenchantment,  discontent,  misanthropy, 
and  sometimes  the  implacable  hatred  of  the  infernal 
furies,  were  the  monstrous  fruits  of  this  "  Variation  of 
Protestantism."  Though  they  understood  not  the 
meaning  of  the  term,  the  celestially-espoused  women 
of  Utah  were  to  a  great  extent  the  most  pessimistic 
creatures  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Considering  the 
plausibility  of  the  crafty  autocrat  of  Zion,  the  rough 

156 


Forty    Tears  in  the  America  ft    Wilderness 

and  ready  eloquence  of  Mormon  missioners,  and  the 
ignorance  and  isolation  of  many  Catholics,  it  is  a 
grand  thing  that,  while  wealth,  position,  and  in  some 
cases  intellectual  ability,  have  been  lured  into  the  ac- 
ceptance of  a  system  diametrically  opposed  to  every 
fine  instinct  of  womanhood,  yet  no  Catholic  maid 
or  matron  was  ever  beguiled  into  believing  in  this 
"patriarchal  order."  Many  have  chafed  under  their 
hard  lot,  for  it  is  the  women  chiefly  who  must  bear 
the  shame,  scorn,  and  anguish  consequent  on  plural 
marriage.  Some  have  left  husbands  who  broke  God's 
law  by  multiplying  wives,  and  reared  their  children  by 
the  sweat  of  their  brow.  One  poor  English  woman, 
whose  eyes  were  dim,  not  from  age,  but  from  weeping, 
said  that  when  her  husband  brought  home  a  girl 
whom  he  called  a  plural  wife,  she  told  him  to  choose 
between  them.  He  selected  her  rival.  She  at  once 
left  his  premises,  taking  her  six  little  children,  whom 
she  supported  henceforth  by  working  for  Gentile 
families.  He  took  another  consort,  and  still  another. 
Years  passed  slowly  for  the  struggling  woman  thus 
sadly  widowed.  The  "plural  wives"  died.  Then  did 
the  worthless  wretch  return  to  his  first  choice.  She 
had  prospered,  she  could  support  him  now  as  well  as 
his  children.  But  the  outraged  creature  drove  him 
from  her  presence,  nor  could  she  speak  of  him  with- 
out loathing.  "  No  religion  could  be  from  God," 
said  she,  "which  causes  the  inexpressible  torture  I 
have  seen  in  the  weary  years  of  my  life  in  the  wilder- 
ness." 

157 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

The  Mormon  men*  seemed  dull,  vulgar,  and  clown- 
ish ;  no  doubt  there  are  many  exceptions.  "When  I 
look  at  them,"  said  a  prominent  Gentile,  "  I  think 
their  horrible  system  should  be  uprooted  by  fire 
and  sword."  Not  so  the  writer.  It  should  never  be 
glorified  by  persecution.  Left  to  itself,  it  will  tumble 
to  pieces.  When  Mormons  break  the  laws  by  bigamy 
or  other  crimes,  they  suffer,  not  as  martyrs,  but  as 
evil-doers.     Yet  it  is  their  policy  to  pose  as  victims. 

The  Mormon  women  look  shapeless  and  slovenly; 
their  faces  soulless,  their  eyes  fishy,  dead.  Seen  in 
thousands  issuing  out  of  the  tabernacle  on  a  fine  Sun- 
day afternoon,  with  their  slatternly  figures  and  slouch- 
ing gait,  they  do,  indeed,  appear  "the  off-scouring  of 
all."  Nothing  blithe  or  gay  about  them  as  they  wad- 
dle along;  no  glow  upon  the  cheek,  no  sparkle  in  the 
eye,  no  trim,  graceful  robes,  no  womanly  dignity. 
Those  whom  we  saw  were  downright  ugly,  and  had  a 
wizened  appearance.  In  some  the  expression  was  re- 
pulsive and  defiant,  in  others,  repulsive  and  sad. 
Many  of  the  children  are  afflicted  with  physical  de- 
formity, and  not  a  few  are  said  to  be  idiotic.  The 
deaf  and   dumb   have   increased   of  late    years.     The 

*N.  P.  Willis's  description  of  "British  Workmen"  fits  the 
lower  type  of  Mormon  men  :  "  Utter  want  of  hope  in  the  counte- 
nances of  the  working  classes  —  the  look  of  dogged  suspicion  and 
animal  endurance  of  their  condition  of  life.  They  act  like  horses 
and  cows.  .  .  .  Their  gait  is  that  of  tired  donkeys.  .  .  . 
Their  mouths  and  eyes  are  wholly  sensual.     .  Their  dress 

without  a  thought  of  more    than  warmth  and  covering.     .     .     , 
Their  voices  are  a  half-note  above  a  grunt." 

158 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

groups  have  a  decidedly  foreign  appearance.  Light 
hair  and  the  Scandinavian  cast  of  features  predom- 
inate. 

The  peculiar  institution  was  made  subservient  to 
the  temporal  weal  of  the  apostles  and  elders.  By 
organizing  and  directing  trade  to  his  own  advantage, 
Brigham  Young  accumulated  enormous  wealth.  In 
the  poorer  classes,  too,  avarice  often  had  something 
to  do  with  the  multiplication  of  helpmates.  These 
wretched  creatures  supported  the  children,  or,  in  a 
country  where  labor  was  high,  supplied  servants  with- 
out wages  to  their  masters.  They  minded  the 
chickens  and  cows,  sold  or  bartered  butter,  eggs, 
honey,  and  farm  produce  in  general.  As  much  ex- 
terior decency  as  was  compatible  with  the  condition 
of  affairs  was  generally  observed,  for  the  Destroying 
Angel  was  abroad,  and  woe  to  the  hapless  wight  that 
fell  under  his  vengeful  wing.  But  under  a  semi- 
respectable  appearance,  there  existed  the  vices  of  the 
cities  of  the  plain. 

Neither  sensuality,  nor  so-called  spirituality,  ever 
turned  the  heads  of  the  rulers*  aside  for  one  moment 
from  what  seems  to  have  been  their  main  purpose  — 
the  achieving  of  opulence.  The  financial  was  inex- 
tricably interwoven  with  the  law  and  the  prophets,  as 

*  There  is  no  man  of  remarkable  ability  among  the  Mormons. 
The  only  one  who  approaches  such  a  plane  is  a  man  who,  "  to 
further  his  own  ends,  has  been  ever  ready  to  use  duplicity, 
perjury,  and  dishonesty  with  his  fellow  Mormons  and  with  the 
United  States ;  a  man  of  supreme  selfishness,  and  a  crafty  world- 
ling." 

159 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

expounded  by  the  lights  of  Mormondom.    Being  rapt 
in  ecstasy,  July  8,  1838,  Joseph  Smith  spoke  thus: 

"  O,  Lord,  show  unto  me,  how  much  thou  requirest 
of  the  properties  of  thy  people  for  a  tithing." 

Here  is  the  answer: 

"  Verily,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  I  require  all  their 
surplus  property  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  the  Bishop 
of  Zion,  for  the  building  of  my  house  and  for  the  lay- 
ing of  the  foundation  of  Zion,  and  for  the  priesthood, 
a»nd  for  the  debts  of  the  presidency  of  my  church. 

"And  this  shall  be  the  beginning  of  the  tithing  of 
my  people. 

"And  after  that,  those  who  have  thus  been  tithed 
shall  pay  one-tenth  of  all  their  interest  annually,  and 
this  shall  be  a  standing  law  unto  them  forever,  for  my 
holy  priesthood,  saith  the  Lord. 

"  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  it  shall  come  to  pass  that 
all  those  who  gather  unto  the  land  of  Zion  shall  be 
tithed  of  their  surplus  properties,  and  shall  observe 
this  law,  or  they  shall  not  be  found  worthy  to  abide 
among  you." 

At  first  there  was  little  or  no  money  in  Utah. 
Everything  was  done  by  barter.  When  a  man  took 
his  families  to  a  place  of  amusement  he  paid  his  fee  in 
"  collateral,"  consisting,  perhaps,  of  a  barrel  or  two  of 
potatoes,  or  a  wheelbarrow  full  of  turnips,  or  some 
dozens  of  adobes.  But  at  no  time  were  the  new  lights 
able  to  say  with  one  of  the  genuine  apostles,  "Silver 
and  gold  I   have  none."     From   the  promulgation  of 

160 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

their  tithe  system  they  grew  prodigiously  rich.  The 
rank  and  file  worked;  the  profits  swelled  the  excheq- 
uers of  the  heads  of  this  nefarious  system. 

For  the  first  twenty  years  after  their  arrival  the 
Mormons  were,  it  may  be  said,  the  sole  occupants  of 
Utah.  Being  a  thousand  miles  from  the  frontier,  they 
deemed  themselves  secure  from  further  molestation. 
In  1854  the  President  appointed  Governor  Steptoe  in 
Mr.  Young's  place.  But  Young  refused  to  stir  from 
the  gubernatorial  seat,  and  set  the  Chief-Executive 
and  the  world  at  large  at  defiance.  "  I  am,  and  will  be, 
governor,"  said  he,  "  and  no  power  can  hinder  it  until 
the  Lord  says,  '  Brigham,  you  need  not  be  governor 
any  longer.' "  The  new  appointee  considered  it  un- 
safe to  enter  the  city,  and  Brigham  remained  governor 
de  facto.  The  saints  were  now  in  open  rebellion 
against  the  United  States,  and  the  Mormon  War  fol- 
lowed. In  1857  the  army  of  Utah,  consisting  of  2,500 
troops,  was  sent  to  reduce  them  to  submission.  Brig- 
ham cut  off  the  supply  trains.  The  territorial  militia 
went  out  to  reconnoitre.  The  "enemy"  was  snow- 
bound one  hundred  miles  east  of  the  capital.  The 
saints  determined  to  evacuate  the  country,  and  leave 
it  as  they  found  it,  a  wilderness.  But,  through  arbitra- 
tion, a  peaceful  solution  of  the  difficulty  was  found. 
The  new  Governor,  Alfred  Gumming,  appointed  by 
President  Buchanan,  was  allowed  to  take  his  seat,  and 
the  belligerent  Mormons  were  pardoned. 

The  army  remained  in  Utah  until  1861.  In  1862 
Colonel  O'Connor  and  his  command  settled  at  Camp 
II  161 


Forty   Years  in  the  American    Wilderness 

Douglas,  within  easy  range  of  the  city.  The  Mormon 
leaders  have  always  keenly  resented  the  military  occu- 
pation of  their  country  as  an  element  of  antagonism, 
and  a  menace  to  peaceful,  law-abiding  citizens.  But 
the  soldiers  have  been  a  blessing  to  the  place. 


VI 

By  far  the  most  remarkable  product  of  Mormon- 
ism  was  Brigham  Young,  of  Vermont,  who  began  life 
as  a  glazier.  He  was  supreme  in  Church  and  State.  A 
Catholic  lady,  his  neighbor  for  many  years,  said  to  the 
writer:  "No  Russian  autocrat  ever  held  his  subjects, 
body  and  soul,  in  so  firm  a  grasp  as  Brigham  Young." 
They  were  literally  his,  to  have  and  to  hold.  His 
temper  was  generally  under  perfect  control ;  his  con- 
versation easily  drifted  from  monologue  to  grotesque 
rhapsody ;  his  unctuous  words  were  seasoned  with 
scriptural  allusions,  and  emitted  in  a  clear,  finely 
modulated  voice,  with  which  one  could  not  readily 
connect  any  disposition  to  cruelty.  His  gentle  con- 
descension and  quiet  self-possession  sometimes  threw 
strangers  off  their  guard,  and  made  them  wonder 
whether  this  bland,  courteous  gentleman  was  in  reality 
the  terrible  Brigham.  He  would  describe  his  suffer- 
ings with  a  pathetic  air,  and  pose  as  a  victim  with  so 
much  grace  that  tears  sometimes  bedewed  the  eyes  of 
an  impressionable  listener.  He  rather  liked  the  role 
of  a  persecuted  saint,  a  taste  still  common  among  his 
disciples.  He  could  be  ebullient,  sarcastic,  and  naively 

162 


Forty    Tears  in  the  A?nerican    Wilderness 

exultant  by  turns,  and  was  not  in  the  least  repelled 
by  irresponsiveness. 

Wearing  a  sort  of  spurious  tiara  as  king,  priest,  and 
prophet,  Brigham  Young  played  the  triple  part  with 
consummate  ability.  He  did  hard  things  in  a  kindly 
fashion,  kept  the  rabble  on  his  side,  and  was  wor- 
shiped by  his  motley  clientele.  He  knew  everyone 
in  his  territory,  and,  by  a  judicious  distribution  of  his 
favors,  gained  the  good-will  of  the  multitude.  Of  his 
wonderful  personal  magnetism,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
And  did  we  not  know  that  there  are  persons  whose 
affectations  in  the  course  of  years  have  become  natural, 
and  whose  illusions  have  finally  become  to  them 
realities,  we  should  say  that  he  was  at  once  a  profound 
hypocrite  and  a  crafty  fanatic. 

Apparently  large-hearted  and  generous,  the  prophet 
was  really  most  grasping  and  avaricious.  He  under- 
stood perfectly  the  art  of  throwing  a  herring  to  catch 
a  whale.  The  tithes  must  be  paid  into  the  Tithing 
House  in  money  or  kind,  but  if  he  ground  his  people 
as  in  a  mill,  he  always  "spoke  them  fair."  He  was 
ready  to  administer  the  estates  of  wealthy  widows, 
but  to  have  surer  control  he  appointed  himself  spirit- 
ual spouse  to  such  ladies.  "  Deal  you  in  words,"  was 
an  advice  he  followed  to  the  letter.  If  women  com- 
plained of  their  hard  lot  in  the  pleasant  valley  by 
Jordan's  stream,  he  spoke,  with  hands  and  eyes  up- 
lifted, of  the  perfect  blessedness  reserved  for  the 
Latter-Day  Saints  in  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  during 
all  eternity.     A  Catholic  who  knew  him  well  spoke  of 

163 


Forty    Tears   in   the  American    Wilderness 

him  in  terms  more  strong  than  elegant.  Another  said 
to  the  writer:  "  Mr.  Young  was  always  a  civil-spoken 
gentleman.  He  never  put  his  hands  behind  his  back 
when  I  asked  him  for  a  subscription."  He  gave  this 
lady  twenty-five  dollars  for  the  Land  League  in  Ire- 
land, and  he  sent  a  like  sum  for  a  hospital  to  be  erected 
on  his  old  hunting  grounds  in  Omaha.  But  those 
who  knew  him  best  declare  that  he  was  close-fisted, 
and  not  at  all  inclined  to  part  with  his  money.  It 
was  necessary  to  his  scheme  to  give  land  to  every 
man*  capable  of  working  it.  The  wealth  of  the  place 
was  to  be  chiefly  agricultural,  and  every  farmer  in- 
creased the  wealth  of  the  church.  As  all  hands  had 
to  pay  their  passage  in  labor,  the  immigrants  were, 
for  the  time  being,  little  better  than  slaves.  Like 
Queen  Elizabeth,  Brigham  was  willing  to  take  with 
both  hands,  but  would  scarcely  give  with  his  little 
finger. 

But  the  great  man  walked  about  among  the  labor- 
ers, shook  hands  with  them  occasionally,  called  them 
by  their  names,  inquired  how  their  families  did,  seemed 
to  believe  their  stories  and  to  trust  in  them.  They 
were  as  ciphers,  every  one  of  whom  pushed  him  up  a 
place  higher;  obscure,  ignoble  builders  of  his  pros- 
perity. They  swelled  his  retinue,  and  he  made  them 
feel  he  was  interested  in  their  welfare.  When  crickets 
or    grasshoppers    destroyed    their    crops,    there    was 

*  Until  1871  the  Mormons  had  only  squatters'  titles  to  their 
property.  At  that  date  only  three  or  four  city  lots  were  owned 
by  non-Mormons. 

164 


Porty    Tears   in  the   American    Wilderness 

always  plenty  in  his  larder,  and  he  more  than  once  in- 
vited them  to  partake  of  it.  "  Ah,"  said  a  poor  woman 
to  us,  "  I  was  never  hungry  when  provisions  were 
scarce.  The  president  with  his  own  hand  gave  me 
plenty  of  breadstuff."  This  woman  did  what  many 
another  did  who  was  better  than  her  surroundings. 
She  declined  to  be  superseded  by  the  women  her  hus- 
band called  wives,  left  his  roof-tree,  took  service  in 
the  family  of  the  prophet,  and  lives  to  testify  how 
well  he  provided  his  household  with  the  flesh-pots  of 
Egypt.  "  No  one  was  ever  hungry  in  his  house,"  said 
another,  who  had  suffered  the  pangs  of  hunger  in 
early  times  of  scarcity.  Both  these  women  execrated 
the  vile  institutions  which  left  so  many  homes,  prac- 
tically, without  husbands  or  fathers.  As  the  prophet 
usually  gave  separate  establishments  to  the  women 
on  whom  he  bestowed  his  hand,  things  did  not  look 
as  gloomy  in  his  premises  as  in  the  homes  of  the  poor, 
but  in  all  cases  the  scenes  between  the  rival  women 
may  be  more  easily  imagined  than  described. 

"  No  one  but  a  Mormon  woman,"  said  a  poor,  faded 
creature,  "can  know  the  torture,  the  horror,  of  this 
diabolical  custom. 

"You  think  it  wrong,  then?  You  are  not  deluded 
into  believing  it  right?" 

"Oh,  no.  1  never  could  believe  such  abomina- 
tions." 

"Well,  now,  the  head  of  your  religion  practised 
these  abominations.  How^  can  you  follow  his  teach- 
ings in  other  points?" 

165 


Forty   Years  in  the  American    Wilderness 

"Oh,  that  is  entirely  different.  He  was  right  what- 
ever he  did." 

No  one  can  doubt  the  sincerity  of  these  people 
when  they  laud  this  man  to  the  skies.  He  thoroughly 
imbued  them  wuth  a  belief  that  he  was  the  centre  of 
a  theocracy  on  the  model  of  the  Bible,  and  the  source 
of  every  spiritual  and  temporal  blessing  they  enjoyed. 
When  they  worked  for  him  they  had  enough  to  eat, 
a  great  point  with  these  stout  bread-wnnners.  When 
he  made  tours,  or,  what  the  old  English  would  call 
"progresses,"  through  the  country,  young  men,  un- 
asked, went  out  before  his  carriage  to  remove  stones 
or  other  obstructions  from  the  rocky  roads  lest  his 
sacred  person  should  be  jolted.  On  his  arrival  at 
Mormon  hamlets,  little  girls  in  white,  with  sashes  of 
celestial  blue,  used  to  march  and  gambol  before  him. 
Every  material  misery  found  a  counterpoise  in  him. 
He  sought  to  eliminate  all  the  supernatural  of  which 
he  was  not  the  medium.  He  listened  gently  to  the 
woes  of  the  plural  consorts  who  came  to  him  for  a 
remedy  which  he  could  not  give.  Similar  w^oes  dis- 
turbed his  own  castles.  But  after  a  few  soft  words 
from  him,  they  would  submit  to  their  hard  lot  with 
patient  endurance  from  which  no  perfume  of  genuine 
piety  exhaled. 

It  is  significant  that  while  so  much  is  made  of  Joe 
Smith,  one  hears  but  little  of  Brigham  Young  in  the 
city  he  founded.  No  picture  or  memento  of  him 
hangs  in  the  Tabernacle  or  Assembly  House.  It  is 
the  present  policy  of  the  Mormons  to  keep  polygamy 

i66 


Forty    Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

as  much  out  of  sight  as  possible.  And  Mr.  Young, 
like  Henry  VIII.,  is  especially  famous  for  his  matri- 
monial transactions.  He  left  his  families  millions  of 
dollars.  A  grandchild  of  his  told  a  Catholic  lady  that 
when  he  was  dying,  illumined  perhaps  with  "the  light 
that  enlighteneth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the 
world,"  he  said:  "I  never  had  a  wife  but  one,  and 
that  was  my  first." 

VII 

The  beehive  is  the  adopted  emblem  of  Mormon- 
ism,  and  much  parade  has  always  been  made  of  Mor- 
mon industry.  But,  leaving  out  the  homes  of  the 
wealthy  bishops  and  other  high  officials,  Mormon 
homesteads  are  often  as  slovenly  looking  as  their  mis- 
tresses who  lounge  on  the  doorsteps  or  hang  over  the 
gates  and  fences,  in  cotton  gowns  and  sunbonnets. 
They  greatly  disappointed  us.  As  a  rule,  the  homes 
were  not  neat,  tidy,  or  well  kept.  Considering  their 
years  in  the  desert  and  their  opportunities,  we  failed 
to  perceive  the  Mormons  had  done  anything  extraor- 
dinary. Gardens  and  farms  showed  great  lack  of 
cleanliness;  weeds  and  tangled  grass  were  rank  and 
abundant,  bushes  untrimmed,  withered  branches  hang- 
ing from  fruit  trees,  broken  limbs  from  shade  trees. 
The  usual  complement  of  tin  cans,  old  hats,  shoes,  and 
rubbish  in  general  that  one  sees  in  remote  western 
towns  was  not  absent  here.  Few  of  the  poorer  dwell- 
ings, whether  of  adobe,  log.  or  frame,  or  all  combined, 
will  bear  a  close  inspection.  Of  flowers  we  saw  scarcely 

167 


Porty   Years  in  the  America ti    Wilderness 

any.  The  little  brooklets  or  runnels  were  dry,  the 
dust  stifling.  Water  was  very  scarce.  Those  who 
used  the  hose  to  water  their  lawns  could  use  it  only 
for  a  stated  period.  We  were  surprised  at  the  general 
untidiness,  especially  on  the  outskirts;  a  people  who 
did  little  else  might  have  their  places  bright  and  clean, 
"  The  sights,"  however,  are  always  in  good  order.  The 
Mormons  are  on  dress  parade  before  strangers,  and 
seem  feverishly  anxious  to  make  a  good  impression. 
Their  worst  features  are  held  in  abeyance.  To  see 
them  at  a  discount  one  should  visit,  unannounced,  the 
suburban  quarters  and  back  settlements.  We  have 
heard  of  the  unspeakable  Turk;  in  rustic  haunts, 
where  the  people  are  not  civilized  by  Gentile  contact, 
may  be  seen  the  unspeakable  Mormon.  Denmark, 
Wales,  England,  Switzerland,  Sweden,  Scotland,  Ger- 
many, and  the  States,  have  contributed  to  establish 
these  outlying  camps  of  Israel,  formed  of  dugouts, 
log-cabins,  and  huts,  with  a  sprinkling  of  houses  of 
more  decent  type.  The  barbaric  hordes  that  followed 
in  the  wake  of  the  prophet  have  not  lost  all  their 
barbarism. 

Some  of  Brigham  Young's  children  married  Gentiles 
—  a  Jew  is  a  Gentile  in  Mormondom.  This  he  affected 
to  consider  an  indelible  disgrace.  And  as  he  had  in 
earlier  days  consigned  his  rival,  Rigdom,  to  the  devil, 
"to  be  buffeted  for  a  thousand  years,"  so  he  solemnly 
delivered  his  own  children  to  Satan  forever,  and  cursed 
them  with  all  his  might.  This  was  severe  from  a 
potentate  who  laid  claim  to  constant  angelic  or  divine 

i68 


Forty    Tears  in  the  A?ficrican    Wilderness 

guidance,  and  whose  talent  and  shrewdness   were  sel- 
dom at  fault. 

The  Mormonism  of  thirty  or  forty  years  ago  is 
now  but  a  tradition.  "Ah,"  said  an  official  of  the 
Tabernacle  to  the  writer,  "you  should  have  seen  this 
town  in  the  early  days,  before  the  railroads  brought 
in  the  trash  of  the  continent,"  /.  c,  the  Gentiles.  The 
people  were  driven  like  sheep  to  the  market-place  by 
a  few  fox-like  demagogues  who  assumed  a  priestly* 
power  terrifying  to  the  abject.  They  had  been  coaxed 
into  the  wilderness  by  the  mellifluous  words  of  the 
president  and  his  silver-tongued  auxiliaries,  and  were 
secure  in  their  iron  grasp.  They  came  to  the  Tadmor 
of  the  desert,  or  rather  to  the  rich  corn-fields  and 
blooming  orchards  which  the  Jordan  laves.  They 
found  a  shabby  little  town,  shaded  by  saplings  —  an 
ugly,  dismal  place,  whose  streets  were  enlivened  by 
pigs  and  goats,  and  adorned  at  irregular  intervals  by 
heaps  of  offal  and  decaying  vegetables.  The  dwellings 
were  silent  as  the  Sahara,  save  for  the  bawling  of 
children.  The  low  cottages,  five  or  six  in  the  same 
yard,  had  additions  on  the  sides  and  rear  for  the  dif- 
ferent families.  Here  and  there,  on  the  dusty  street, 
one  might  see  a  deserted  wife  airing  her  progeny. 
The  cottage  occupied  by  Brigham  Young  in  his 
humble  early  days  is  now  the  property  of  the  convent 

*The  officers  of  the  Melchisedek  priesthood  are  higli  priests 
and  elders.  The  officers  of  the  Aaronic,  or  lesser  priesthood,  are 
priests,  teachers,  and  deacons.  These  preside.  The  office  of  the 
Seventy  is  to  travel  for  recruits. 

169 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

of  which  it  forms  a  part.  It  contains  four  large  apart- 
ments (each  can  be  shut  off  from  the  rest)  and  three 
entrances.  The  doors  and  windows  are  screened  with 
wire  gauze  to  keep  out  insects,  which  are  very  annoy- 
ing in  Utah  during  the  hot  weather.  In  one  room  is 
a  trap-door,  through  which  Brigham  more  than  once 
escaped  when  the  United  States  authorities  were  wish- 
ing to  see  him.  Many  of  the  early  houses,  with  their 
sncciirsalcs,  and  a  few  of  the  original  log-cabins  remain. 
Even  to-day  there  are  large  expanses  of  swamp  and 
sage  brush  between  the  Temple  City  and  Ogden.  Al- 
though still  profoundly  disappointing  to  one  who  has 
often  heard  of  it  as  "  combining  the  cleanliness  and 
activity  of  Young  America  with  the  picturesqueness 
and  dignity  of  the  Orient,"  it  has  greatly  improved 
since  its  earlier  decades.  But  this  progress  is 
due  chiefly  to  the  presence  of  the  progressive  Gen- 
tile. 

The  exodus  of  the  pilgrims  from  Nebraska,  and 
their  establishment  on  the  beautiful  plain  at  the  foot 
of  the  Wasatch  range,  would,  it  was  supposed,  place 
them  beyond  the  reach  of  Gentile  interference  forever. 
There  were  no  soldiers,  no  railroads,  no  telegraph. 
Heretofore  their  peculiar  ways  had  brought  them  into 
conflict  with  their  neighbors.  The  new  Jerusalem 
would  have  no  neighbors.  Unfriendly  Gentiles  would 
disturb  them  no  more.  Ere  the  saints  would  have 
spent  "  Forty  Years  in  the  Wilderness  "  they  would 
have  established  an  empire  more  compact  than  that  of 
Charlemagne  and  grander  than  the  dream  of  Napoleon. 


Forty    years   i tr   the   American    Wilderness 

But  the  railroads,  the  mines,  and  the  soldiers  brought 
a  "change  over  the  spirit"  of  such  dreams. 

The  Mormon  leaders,  notably  Young,  opposed  the 
development  of  the  mineral  resources  of  the  country. 
The  locality  of  valuable  mineral  ledges  was  kept 
secret  by  his  order,  though  he  thorougly  understood 
their  value,  lest  the  Gentiles  should  profit  by  them. 
The  Mormons  trade  only  with  each  other,  give  work- 
to  each  other,  and  boycott  the  Gentiles  in  every  pos- 
sible way.  Zion's  Co-operative  Mercantile  Institution, 
irreverently  called  "the  Co-op,"  which  has  several 
branches,  handles  business  to  the  amount  of  six  mil- 
lion dollars  a  year.  Through  this  institution  the 
church  considered  herself  entitled  to  crush  out  all 
competition. 

When  enterprising  people  like  the  four  Walker 
brothers  sought  to  do  a  little  business  on  their  own 
account,  and  encouraged  outside  capital  to  come  to 
their  aid  in  developing  the  silver*  ledges  of  the 
Wasatch,  they  immediately  fell  under  the  ban  of 
Brigham's  displeasure.  Their  tithe-offerings  did  not 
suit  him.  He  wanted  thirty  thousand  dollars  more 
than  the  amount  they  presented.  Tithe  collecting  is 
an  art  in  which  these  apostles  have  always  been  dis- 
tinguished experts.  To-day,  Presiding  Bishop  Pres- 
cott,  a  Virginian,  admits  that  the  revenue  from  this 
source  amounts  to  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars  a 

*  From  any  of  the  heights  around  Salt  Lake  City  one  may  see 
spiral  wreaths  and  columns  of  black  smoke  arising  from  the  silver- 
ore  smelters. 

171 


Forty    Tears  in   the  Ameriean    Wilderness 

year.  He  declines  to  make  any  statement  as  to  its 
use.  "  The  people,"  said  he,  "  are  asked  to  believe  in 
the  honesty  and  business  sense  of  their  bishops,  with- 
out an  annual  array  of  figures  which  might  or  might 
not  lie." 

VIII 

Only  the  lethargy  or  stupidity  of  the  masses  could 
make  fraud  and  pillage  on  this  gigantic  scale  possible. 
The  calumnies  uttered  against  the  Jesuits  by  their 
enemies  would  be  true  if  applied  to  the  "Aaronic" 
priesthood.  **  The  end,"  the  enriching  of  the  rulers, 
justifies  any  "means"  whatever.  One-tenth  of  every- 
thing goes  into  the  treasury  of  the  church.  Mormon- 
dom  is  divided  into  stakes.  At  the  head  of  every 
stake  is  a  stake  bishop.  Every  stake  is  divided  into 
wards,  presided  over  by  ward  bishops.  Ward  bishops 
get  orders  from  stake  bishops,  and  these  make  returns 
to  the  presiding  bishop  and  his  cabinet  of  two.  Blind, 
unquestioning  obedience  is  rigidly  enforced.  Apostle 
John  W.  Taylor,  the  czar  of  all  the  Mormons,  has  just 
warned  his  flock  of  the  pernicious  tendencies  of  the 
day,  and  the  danger  that  lurks  in  criticism  of  those 
over  them.  "  The  men  at  the  head  of  the  church," 
says  he,  "have  the  spirit  of  revelation  —  they  are 
prophets  and  seers,  and  we  cannot  retain  the  spirit  of 
God  and  be  constantly  finding  fault  with  them." 

The  prophet  was  once  abroad,  but  the  iconoclast  is 
abroad  to-day.  Revolts  and  rumors  of  revolts  are 
common    in    the    holy    city.      There    were,    indeed, 

172 


Forty    Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

upheavals  and  commotions  in  the  days  of  the  redoubt- 
able Brigham.  The  Godbeites  and  others  spoke,  and 
with  no  uncertain  tone.  They  declared  that  President 
Young  was  not  lord  of  their  temporalities,  and  that 
the  elders  should  confine  their  guidance  to  things 
spiritual.  When  the  Walker  brothers  were  asked  for 
an  enormous  sum  as  their  "tithing,"  the  demand  met 
with  a  stern  refusal.  But  the  dictator,  who  would 
brook  no  opposition,  excommunicated  the  rebels,  and 
worked  with  all  his  might  to  ruin  their  business. 

The  church  is  weaker  now  than  in  early  days,  and 
it  is  kept  up  chiefly  through  its  missionary*  channels. 
The  Catholic  Church,  without  showing  the  slightest 
aggressiveness;  the  railroads,  which  daily  pour  in 
throngs  of  witnesses ;  and  the  freedom  which  the 
pointed  guns  of  Camp  Douglas  insure,  have  perceptibly 
weakened  what  seemed  to  be  a  vital  force  in  this 
hideous  fanaticism,  and  have  begun  its  overthrow. 
Some  Mormon  women  have  married  Catholics  and  be- 
come exemplary  members  of  the  true  Church.  In 
fact,  all  the  Mormons  who  wed  liberals  of  any  denom- 
ination embrace  the  religion  of  their  spouses,  which 
shows  that  Mormonism  carries  no  conviction  to  the 
minds    and    hearts    of    its    votaries.     Many    of    the 

*"A  Perpetual  Emigration  Fund"  is  collected  to  bring  out 
new  recruits.  At  first,  Europeans  were  brought  to  Winter 
Quarters,  en  route  for  Utah,  by  way  of  New  Orleans,  whence 
they  ascended  the  river  to  Omaha.  But,  since  the  opening  of  the 
railroads,  they  go  from  the  Atlantic  seabord  by  trains.  Probably 
about  half  of  the  Mormons  are  foreigners,  though  this  may  be  an 
underestimate. 

173 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

daughters  of  Zion  tell  their  Gentile  friends  that, 
though  Mormons,  they  do  not  believe  in  the  teach- 
ings of  Mormonism. 

Would  that  all  who  fall  away,  or  rise  up,  from  that 
superstition  embraced  the  Catholic  faith.  Here  is 
what  Rev.  Mr.  Lamb,  a  Baptist  minister,  who  has 
lived  many  years  in  Utah,  says: 

"  At  the  annual  conference  held  in  Provo,  April  4, 
1886,  one  of  the  leading  speakers  confessed,  with  a  sad 
heart,  that  one-third  of  all  the  boys  and  young  men  in 
Utah,  between  fifteen  and  thirty  years  of  age,  are  in- 
fidels. This  statement  was  fully  confirmed  by  subse- 
quent speakers.  And  my  own  observation  is,  that  this 
infidelity  among  the  young  people  is  even  more  wide- 
spread than  the  above  admission  would  indicate,  and 
is  being  shared  by  a  rapidly  increasing  number  of  the 
older  members." 

So  severe  is  the  tithing  tax  on  the  rich  that,  among 
those  who  accumulate  wealth,  some  quietly  drop  aside 
out  of  the  church  without  joining  any  other.  These, 
and  the  large  class  that  side  with  every  party,  are 
called  "  Jack  Mormons."  Genuine  apostates  are  quite 
numerous,  and  their  testimony  as  to  the  rulers  is  by  no 
means  complimentary.  These  men  must  have  money. 
Their  subjects,  whose  allegiance  is  due  to  ignorance 
and  superstition,  live  simply.  They  must  not  buy 
from  Gentiles  or  give  them  work.  The  Gentile  must 
be  starved  out.  A  prominent  "  saint "  was  wont  to 
affirm  that  God  was  a  business  God,  and  that  if  the 

174 


Forty    Tears  in  the  America}!    Wilderness 

saints  had  kept  their  business  to  themselves  they 
would  not  be  punished  by  the  presence  of  the  Gen- 
tiles; their  money  would  remain  among  themselves. 
A  man  with  many  wives  and  children  needs  a  good 
allowance. 

Brigham  Young  improved  to  the  utmost  his  oppor- 
tunities of  acquiring  wealth.  The  last  —  said  to  be 
the  nineteenth  —  reversion  of  his  hand  he  bestowed 
on  one  Amelia  Folsom.  He  built  her  a  showy  man- 
sion with  a  Mansard  roof,  a  tower  and  cupola,  set  in 
the  midst  of  a  beautiful  lawn.  It  is  now  the  executive 
mansion  of  the  Mormon  hierarchy,  though  still  called 
the  Amelia  Palace.  To  each  of  the  abject  women 
whom  this  American  Turk  selected  for  dishonor  he 
gave  a  local  habitation,  if  not  a  name.  The  first  wife 
was  Mrs.  Young  ;  the  others  were  simply  called  Miss, 
with  the  given,  we  cannot  say  Christian,  name,  the 
chief  being  "  Miss  Amelia,"  according  to  a  custom 
common  in  Utah.  The  children  of  a  first  marriage 
consider  themselves  on  a  higher  social  plane  than  the 
offspring  of  subsequent  so-called  marriages  contracted 
amid  the  orgies  of  the  Endowment  House. 

Immense  pains  have  always  been  taken  to  imbue 
the  young  with  the  doctrines  of  Mormonism,  They 
were  forbidden  to  hold  intercourse  with  Gentiles,  and 
so  far  this  isolation  has,  to  a  great  extent,  kept  them 
in  darkness.  But  as  the  Gentile  population  increases, 
the  young  saints,  much  to  the  discomfiture  of  the 
patriarchs  and  high  priests,  become  ashamed  of 
Mormonism.       At    the  county   election   held  in  Salt 

175 


Forty   Tears   in  the  American    Wilderness 

Lake  City,  August,  1889,  several  Gentiles  were  elected 
because  many  disaffected  Mormons  voted  the  liberal 
ticket.  An  intelligent  Catholic  gentleman  who  has 
long  resided  in  Utah  writes: 

"  If  the  Government  were  to  break  up  the  school 
trustee  system,  for  of  course  when  there  are  Mormon 
trustees  *  there  will  be  Mormon  teachers  and  Mormon 
pupils,  and  appoint  its  own  superintendent  and  teach- 
ers, and  adopt  its  own  text-books,  which,  in  this  case, 
might  contain  a  full  account  of  the  true  nature  of 
Mormonism,  the  enlightenment  of  the  children  would 
be  secured." 

So  far  the  number  of  Mormons  who  embrace  the 
Catholic  faith  is  small.  The  Mormon  ranks  are  re- 
cruited from  non-Catholic  countries.  The  prejudices 
of  early  years  are  strengthened  by  the  Church's  in- 
flexible teachings  of  self-crucifixion  as  compared  with 
the  loose  morality  of  Mormonism.  The  condition  of 
the  children  is  deplorable.  They  are  often  taught  by 
their  jealous  aunts  —  plural  wives  are  so-called  —  to 
hate  one  another,  and  encouraged  to  tantalize  their 
deserted  mothers.  Besides,  many  fathers  are  ordered 
off  on  missionary  work.  Some  are  absent  three  or 
four  years,  others  get  "  revelations,"  establish  new 
families,  and  never  return.  In  either  case  the  children 
are  left  to  their  own  sweet  wills,  and,  says  a  Gentile 
resident,  "  it  is  not  surprising  that  in  the  outskirts  of 

*  Several  Gentile  trustees  have  been  elected,  but  the  Mormons 
are  scheming  in  every  possible  way  to  get  full  supervision  of  the 
schools. 

176 


Forty    J'cars  in   the  American    Wilderness 

the  town  the  nights  are  often  rendered  hideous  by  the 
whoops  of  the  young  Mormon  hoodlums,"  called  also 
"  yaps." 

Like  Brigham  Young,  the  Mormons  love  to  pose 
as  victims.  With  them  prosecution  is  persecution. 
They  insist  it  is  their  religion  that  is  persecuted  when 
they  are  punished  for  breaking  the  law,  and,  "my 
father  is  in  the  pen,"  is  a  common  boast  among  the 
children  of  polygamists.  There  is  profound  policy  in 
viewing  the  question  as  they  choose  to  view  it.  As 
long  as  it  bears  a  religious  aspect,  so  long  will  law- 
breakers arrested  for  crime  proclaim  themselves  mar- 
tyrs. Queen  Elizabeth,  with  extraordinary  cunning, 
tried  to  deprive  martyrdom  of  its  heroism  by  enacting 
that  the  Catholic  religion  was  treason,  and  punishing 
its  adherents  as  traitors. 

IX 

Brigham's  own  special  demesne  near  the  Temple 
Block,  and  stretching  far  to  the  east,  was  strongly 
fortified.  A  gateway  in  the  Spanish  wall  called  the 
Eagle  Gate,  with  huge  bulging  buttresses  on  either 
side  has  over  the  keystone  of  the  arch  that  spans  it  a 
golden  beehive,  on  which  is  perched  an  immense  eagle 
with  outstretched  wings.  The  wall  is  broken  here 
and  there  by  round  towers.  Near  it  are  the  historic 
Beehive  and  Lion  Houses,  so-called  respectively  from 
the  ornaments  on  each  portico.  Other  houses  have 
their  faces  turned  to  the  rear  of  this  dead  wall.  They 
were  once  tenanted  by  the  miserable  women  who 
12  177 


Fortv    Tears   in  the  American    Wilderness 

accepted,  or  were  compelled  to  accept,  life  with  the 
patriarch  and  other  high  mightinesses.  Trap-doors 
and  underground  passages  are  said  to  exist.  In  dig- 
ging cellars  and  sewers  skeletons  have  been  found. 
All  this  gives  a  color  of  probability  to  many  a  weird 
and  ghastly  tale.  The  crumbling  walls  seem  to  re- 
echo the  sharp  shrieks  and  dismal  moans  of  the  poor 
sultanas  who  wept  and  struggled  for  freedom.  One 
of  these,  the  fifteenth  consort  of  Brigham,  actually 
did  escape,  and  applied  to  the  United  States  Court 
for  a  divorce  in  1874.  But  in  earlier  days  there  was 
neither  ingress  nor  egress,  save  through  the  suave  but 
terrible  sultan. 

An  inmate  of  the  Beehive  House  says  that  Mrs. 
Young,  when  faded  and  broken,  almost  annihilated 
herself  to  keep  some  hold  on  the  capricious  affections 
of  her  husband.  He  breakfasted  with  her  every  morn- 
ing, and  she,  like  Rebecca  of  old,  prepared  the  meats 
he  loved.  She  showered  attentions  on  the  women 
who  had  supplanted  her.  She  was  politic,  and  could 
smile  when  her  heart  was  breaking.  Poor  woman,  the 
end  was  not  worthy  of  the  means;  she  could  not  keep 
the  heart  of  her  fickle  husband,  for  he  had  none. 

The  saints  were  not  allowed  to  contribute  to  Gen- 
tile charities,  but  their  own  church  assessments  were 
very  large.  The  building  up  of  Zion  has  always  been 
an  expensive  work  The  church  was  the  great  mer- 
chant. Emissaries  in  foreign  lands,  Blood  Atoners, 
Destroying  Angels,  could  not  live  on  air.  The  ex- 
penses of  the  Temple  have  already  run  into  millions. 

178 


Forty    Tears   in  the  American    Wilderness 

The  Destroying  Angels  do  not  now  exist  as  a  pub- 
lic factor  in  Mormonism,  but  the  principle  that  estab- 
lished them  in  bygone  days,  and  prompted  them  to 
perform  their  abominable  cruelties,  still  exists.  It  is 
well-known  that  the  prophet  would  brook  no  resist- 
ance. When  some  rebel  was  missing  it  was  understood 
that  he  had  been  put  out  of  the  way  for  the  good  of 
the  church.  Many  a  dark,  mysterious  tale  was  whis- 
pered of  such  or  such  a  man  who  was  seen  going  into 
the  Tabernacle  or  behind  the  Eagle  Gate,  and  whose 
place  in  the  city  knew  him  no  more.  The  Mountain 
Meadow  massacre  is  an  indelible  stain  on  Mormonism. 
Over  a  hundred  emigrants  from  Arkansas,  en  route  for 
the  Pacific  slope,  stopped  at  the  holy  city  to  buy  pro- 
visions. Brigham  did  not  want  these  strangers  to  mix 
with  his  saints,  lest  such  intercourse  might  foment  the 
discontent  of  many  to  whom  Utah  had  been  a  land  of 
promise  rather  than  of  performance.  All  were  driven 
out  and  massacred  by  the  Mormons  and  Lamanites,  or 
Mormon  Indians,  September  9,  1857.  Many  years 
later,  John  D,  Lee  was  taken  out  of  Zion's  fold  and 
executed  for  his  share  in  that  shocking  transaction. 
Something  similar  happened,  but  on  a  smaller  scale, 
when  the  "Morrisites"  seceded  on  the  polygamy  ques- 
tion. They  settled  in  Weber  Canon,  entrenched  them- 
selves  behind  stockades  and  corrals,  and  were  living  in 
peace,  when  one  day  the  Destroying  Angels  burst  furi- 
ously upon  them  and  left  many  weltering  in  their  gore. 

A  middle-aged  man,  son  of  Mormon  parents,  but  a 
Gentile  by  choice,  who  remembers  vividly  the  Moun- 

X79 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American   Wilderness 

tain  Meadow  massacre,  is  a  warm  admirer  of  Governor 
Young,  whom  he  knew  intimately.  He  told  the  v^riter 
that  Young  was  not  responsible  for  all  the  murders 
which  anti-Mormons  lay  to  his  charge;  that  he  had 
sent  a  messenger  on  his  fleetest  horse  to  stop  the 
Mountain  Meadow  massacre.  "But,"  said  he,  "he 
wronged  himself  and  his  cause  by  allowing  the  vilest 
evildoers  to  escape  unwhipt  of  justice."  Unhappily, 
however,  he  cannot  be  cleared  of  complicity  in  these 
dastardly  deeds. 

In  a  material  sense,  he  had  executive  ability  and 
several  other  qualities  of  a  great  ruler.  He  made 
much  show  of  what  he  called  religion,  and  was  always 
ready  to  afifirm  that  whatever  commands  he  laid  on 
his  dupes  were  the  results  of  direct  revelation.*  He 
inculcated  apparent  honesty  and  truthfulness,  and  in- 
sisted on  industry.  But  even  of  material  progress  he 
allowed  but  a  modicum.  The  mines  must  not  be 
worked,  nor  skillful  metallurgists  introduced,  for  fear 
of  bringing  in  the  Gentiles.  Neither  did  he  care  for 
railroads.  But  if  he  could  not  hinder  these  projects, 
he  helped,  or  pretended  to  help,  them.  In  the  laying 
of  the  transcontinental  railway  between  his  old  quar- 
ters,  Omaha,    and    San    Francisco,    he    was    a    heavy 

*  An  old  resident  of  Utah  writes  :  "  Some  Mormon  leaders  are 
hypocrites  of  the  most  arrant  type ;  no  better  proof  can  be  given 
than  their  claim  of  being  in  direct  communication  with  God,  of 
having  seen  Him,  etc.  In  making  this  statement  each  knows  that 
he  is  a  liar.  Some  bishops  lay  no  claim  to  having  seen  the  Al- 
mighty or  received  revelations  from  Him.  But  they  profess  to  be- 
lieve  the  statements  of  those  higher  in  power." 

1 80 


Forty    )'ears   in  the  America)?    Wilderness 

contractor.  The  Mormons  built  the  road  between  Salt 
Lake  City  and  Ogden.  The  modest  prosperity  that 
rewarded  Mormon  efforts  in  the  days  of  Young's 
power  and  prestige  was  due  in  a  great  measure  to  his 
watchful  eye,  his  inspiring  language,  and  the  partial 
absence  of  alcoholic  stimulant.  The  real  progress 
which  has  made  Salt  Lake  City  a  notable  commercial 
mart,  is  due  chiefly  to  the  incoming  of  the  Gentiles 
and  Gentile  enterprise. 

Joe  Smith  and  Brigham  Young  were  men  of  in- 
famous lives,  but,  over  and  above  personal  merits  or 
demerits,  the  latter  had  one  quality  the  former  had 
not,  the  faculty  of  being  interesting.  He  attracted  at- 
tention. People  liked  to  hear  of  him.  He  was  the 
personification  of  absolutism.  No  one  was  allowed  to 
air  an  opinion  contrary  to  his.  But  though  they  were 
as  wax  in  his  hands,  he  never  trusted  fully  to  the  vis 
inerti(2  of  the  masses.  He  was  the  grand  archee  of  the 
Danites,  a  secret  society  sworn  to  do  his  will,  right  or 
wrong.  A  few  years  more  of  the  rule  of  this  despot 
would  have  reduced  his  followers  to  primeval  barbarism. 
Most  of  the  obloquy  of  a  horrible  state  of  affairs  fell  on 
the  women.  They  were  emphatically  the  injured 
party.  History  tells  us  how  ferocious  women  can  be. 
But  even  had  they  a  competent  leader  and  a  capacity 
for  organization,  what  could  the  spiritless  women  of 
the  beehive  do  against  the  sensual,  avaricious  wretches 
supposed  to  be  their  husbands? 

Singularly  enough,  Brigham  Young  always  got  on 
better  with  Catholics  than  with  any  of  the  sects  that 


Forty    Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

settled  in  his  capital.  He  expressed  real  love  for  them, 
and  even  condescended  to  affirm  that  they  would  be 
next  below  the  Latter-Day  Saints  in  heaven.  To  this 
day  the  Mormons  say:  "Oh,  we  like  the  Catholics  and 
their  bishop !  He  always  treats  us  like  gentlemen." 
When  certain  ministers  urged  the  bishop  to  sign  a  peti- 
tion to  the  Government  to  have  them  rooted  out  he  very 
properly  declined  to  interfere.  They  had  always  been 
kind  to  him,  and  in  following  a  religion  which  he  depre- 
cated they  were  only  exercising  their  private  judgment, 
like  other  non-Catholics.  But  they  had  no  real  love  for 
the  true  religion,  nor  would  it  ever  have  entered  the 
boundaries  of  Utah  if  the  apostles  and  elders  could  have 
kept  it  out.  The  first  priests  who  penetrated  President 
Young's  capital  were  persecuted  by  his  followers,  and 
nothing  of  this  kind  was  done  but  by  his  inspiration 
and  connivance.  Threatening  letters  were  sent  them  ; 
a  coffin  was  hung  on  Father  Kelly's  door,  and  he  was 
privately  informed  that  he  would  be  put  in  a  state  to 
occupy  it  if  he  did  not  withdraw  from  Zion.  Ostensibly 
the  sanctimonious  prophet  was  ignorant  of  all  this,  and 
no  one  would  have  dared  to  implicate  him.  The  sturdy 
priest  laid  the  letters  and  the  coffin  before  his  half- 
dazed  eyes.  With  the  composure  and  dignity  of  a 
leader  in  Israel  he  prudently  "accepted  the  situation." 
Seeing  that  Catholics  could  not  be  kept  out,  he  de- 
clared himself  their  protector.  Mass  was  celebrated  in 
a  poor  log-cabin,  some  miners  and  emigrants  forming 
the  congregation.  To  the  Sisters,  who  were  there  in 
1870,  he  said:  "  I  am  certain  I  did  all  a  man  could  do 

182 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

to  convert  your  priest  to  my  religion,  and  without  any 
success.  But  I  am  not  so  certain  that  he  could  not 
have  converted  me  to  the  Catholic  faith  had  he  re- 
mained long  enough  and  tried  hard  enough."  Some- 
thing like  friendship  sprang  up  in  him  for  this  bright, 
sunny  priest,  of  whom  he  often  spoke  with  affectionate 
admiration. 

Brigham  begged  the  Sisters  to  remain  in  his  city  to 
teach  the  children.  "I  am  very  anxious,"  said  he,  "for 
good,  moral  schools  for  our  young  people."  When  a 
convent  was  opened  some  years  later.  Mormon  chil- 
dren* flocked  to  it.  Intercourse  with  them  brought 
out  curious  details  of  their  domestic  life.  Two  children, 
of  the  same  father  and  different  mothers,  being  about 
the  same  age,  were  called  "  papa's  twins."  The  largest 
families  number  sixty-five,  and  families  of  thirty  or 
forty  are  not  uncommon.  A  theatre  manager,  while 
in  Salt  Lake  City,  wanted  a  certain  space  for  his  posters. 
He  asked  the  owner  for  leave  to  use  it.  "  Certainly," 
was  the  reply,  "  but  I  want  some  tickets  for  my  family." 
Inquiry  elicited  the  fact  that  the  family  numbered 
forty-one,  and  the  manager  thought  it  cheaper  to  hire 
his  advertising  space. 

The  bishops  soon  put  a  stop  to  sending  Mormon 
children  to  the  Convent  school.  Placing  an  importance 

*Even  the  Destroying  Angel  put  his  children  at  the  Convent 
school,  but  he  would  never  enter  its  precincts.  When  he  wanted 
to  see  them  he  would  stand  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  wide  street, 
and  send  a  messenger  across  to  have  them  sent  to  him.  When 
invited  to  the  convent  he  would  say :  "  I  cannot  go  into  that  holy 
house,  I  am  too  wicked,"  or  "  Don't  ask  me,  I  am  a  bad  man." 

i«3 


Forty    Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

on  early  impressions,  which  people  of  greater  intelli- 
gence in  other  respects  might  copy  with  advantage,  they 
agreed  that  children  subjected  to  the  teachings  and  ex- 
ample of  the  Sisters  could  never  grow  up  good  Mor- 
mons;* and  they  opened  Mormon  schools,  to  which  the 
children  were  compelled  to  go.  As  a  rule,  the  leaders 
were  never  unkind  to  the  Sisters,  but  they  did  not  wish 
them  to  invade  their  territory.  Their  head-dress  seemed 
to  mystify  the  women.  "  Madam,"  said  one,  very 
kindly,  "have  you  a  headache  that  you  wrap  your  head 
up  so  ?  I  can  give  you  something  to  cure  it."  Another 
stopped  two  Sisters  in  the  street,  and  said  :  "  What 
disgraceful  creatures  you  are !  You  should  be  ashamed 
to  come  among  the  saints.  How  dare  you  lead  lives 
against  nature  and  the  prophet?"  They  did  not 
realize  that  a  life  may  be  above  nature  or  supernatural 
without  being  against  it.  A  few  told  sorrowful  tales, 
but  seemed  sincere  in  their  belief  that  some  awful 
deity,  whom  they  could  not  define,  exacted  of  them  the 
dreadful  sacrifice  their  peculiar  institution  involves. 
We  did  not  see  a  solitary  cheerful  face  among  the  Mor- 
mon women;  many  faces  bore  the  hard  look  that  un- 
sanctified  suffering  gives. 

Fort  Douglas  is  a  great  protection.  Once  a  lovely 
girl  of  fifteen  was  dragged  from  her  mother's  side  and 
hurried  beyond  the  Eagle  Gate,  to  be  sealed  to  a 
"Twelve  Apostle  man."     The  girl  watched  her  oppor- 

*  Mormon  children  are  taught  to  ignore  all  creeds  and  govern- 
ments save  the  Mormon  creed  and  the  theocracy  of  the  Mormon 
church. 

184 


Forty    Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

tunity,  and,  with  the  connivance  of  a  friend,  fled  to  the 
barracks  for  protection. 

Thrilling  tales  are  heard  on  all  sides,  but  the  old 
days  of  terror  have  passed  away  never  to  return 
One  Englishwoman  declared  that  she  had  been  a 
saint  since  her  eighth  year ;  another  was  born  a  saint. 
In  addressing  them  one  must  say,  "arc  you  a  saint  ?  " 
not  "are  you  a  Mormon?"  A  gentleman  having 
shown  us  great  courtesy,  we  ventured  to  ask,  "  are  you 
a  saint,  sir?"  "No,  madam,"  said  he,  "  I  am  a  sinner 
from  the  Island  of  Saints."  In  Utah  sinners  are  pref- 
erable to  saints.  Bishop  Scanlan  *  has  gained  the 
good  will  of  the  Mormons  more  than  the  representa- 
tive of  any  other  denomination.  When  at  Silver  Reef, 
in  southern  Utah,  he  was  held  in  such  high  esteem  by 
the  leaders  at  St.  George,  that  they  invited  him  to 
perform  service  in  their  Tabernacle.  St.  George  is  an 
exclusively  Mormon  settlement,  almost  on  the  boun- 
dary line  between  Utah  and  Arizona.  High  Mass  was 
sung,  the  Mormon  choir  assisting,  and,  according  to 
the  report  in  the  ofificial  paper  of  the  Mormons,  the 
Dcseret  Ncivs,  Mr.  Scanlan  preached  a  very  interesting 
discourse  on  the  principles  of  the  Catholic  faith.  The 
Tabernacle  was  crowded.  "  Mr.  Scanlan  appears  to 
be  a  man  of  considerable  information,  and,  consider- 
ing his  faith,  appeared  liberal  in  his  views.  .  .  . 
He  said  :  'I  believe  you  are  wrong,  and  you  think   I 

*Utah  was  once  under  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  ordi- 
nary of  San  Fransisco,  and  Archbishop  Alemany  visited  Salt  Lake 
City  three  times. 

-185 


Forty    Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

am  wrong;  but  this  should  not  prevent  us  from  treat- 
ing each  other  with  due  consideration  and  respect ! ' 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  he  may  retain  this  feeling  in 
practice  as  well  as  in  sentiment."  Brigham  Young 
was  extremely  polite  to  the  Catholic  clergy  and  Sis- 
ters. When  he  met  them  in  the  street  he  would  stop 
his  carriage,  uncover  his  head,*  and  make  a  deep 
salaam.  Sometimes  he  would  make  a  sign  to  them  to 
approach.  And  the  big,  showy  man,  in  gray  suit,  with 
a  red  scarf  about  his  neck  and  the  shiniest  of  boots, 
would  graciously  inquire  how  they  were  doing,  and 
emit  his  best  wishes  for  their  health  and  prosperity. 
One  day  two  Holy  Cross  Sisters  called  on  him  at  the 
Lion  House,  and,  after  some  desultory  conversation, 
asked  whether  he  would  be  pleased  to  give  them  some 
help  towards  building  their  hospital.  He  had  no 
ready  money  just  then  ;  all  was  invested,  much  to  his 
regret,  as  it  deprived  him  of  the  pleasure  of  aiding 
them.  The  rest  of  his  answ^er  deserves  to  be  put  on 
record  verbatim.  "  But,"  added  this  high  priest,  con- 
siderately, "whenever  you  feel  that  you  need  any 
spiritual  advice  or  direction,  apply  to  me,  and  I  will 
instruct  you  !  "  And  so  he  dismissed  them  with  his 
blessing.  So  great  was  his  zeal  for  their  salvation 
that  he  was  baptized  for  them,  as  he  had  been  vicari- 
ously baptized  for  George  Washington  and  others. 

The  present  attitude  of  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment and  the  aggressive  and  progressive  policy  of  the 
liberals  are  calculated  to  suppress  polygamy ;  but  resi- 

*  Yet  Brigham  never  doffed  the  hat  to  any  one,  even  a  prince. 
1 86 


Forty   Tears   in   the  American    Wilderness 

dents  in  Utah  say  that  it  is  still  prevalent,  while  it  is 
extremely  difficult  to  convict  an  offender.  A  friend 
who  has  been  long  in  the  territory  says:  "The  Mor- 
mons are  a  lying,  hypocritical,  contradictory  people; 
without  honor  or  honesty,  conscience  or  principle." 
But  for  their  time  and  opportunities  they  are  few. 
The  whole  of  Utah  does  not  contain  as  many  people 
as  New  Orleans,*  and  of  these  less  than  sixty  per  cent 
are  Mormons.  As  for  healthfulness.  Salt  Lake  City  is 
not  more  healthy  than  other  western  towns.  It  has 
been  singularly  unhealthy  for  children,  as  its  populous 
cemetery  shows.  Diphtheria  has  been  peculiarly  fatal 
in  the  holy  city,  and  malarial  diseases  are  by  no  means 
unknown.  People  boast  of  the  number  of  old  men 
and  women  as  a  proof  of  the  salubrity  of  the  climate; 
but,  if  we  take  into  account  the  fact  that  most  of  the 
adults  are  foreigners  who  did  not  leave  their  homes 
until  the  perils  of  childhood  were  passed,  a  death-rate 
of  over  lo  in  i,ooo  would  be  very  large. 

XI 

Brigham  Young  died  August  29,  1877,  at  the 
Amelia    Palace,   and  was   buried  September  2d.     The 

*  One  who  investigated  this  subject  writes  :  '' Polygamy  does 
not,  where  practised,  show  a  greater  number  of  children  born  in 
that  state  than  does  monogamy.  For  example,  two  men  with  ten 
wives  each  will  not  show  as  large  families  collectively  as  where  the 
same  number  of  women  are  married  each  to  one  husband."  The 
official  church  report  for  1888  places  the  number  of  the  "  faithful  " 
in  Utah  at  125,000  souls.  The  whole  population  is  about  215,000. 
In  1880  the  males  were  5,055  in  excess  of  the  females. 

187 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American    Wilderness 

people  grieved  for  him.  The  ladies,  about  a  score, 
who  considered  themselves  widowed  by  his  demise, 
roamed  the  streets  disconsolate,  each  carrying  a  large 
towel  to  receive  her  tears  as  she  lifted  upher  voice  and 
wept.  The  shrieks  rent  the  air.  "  The  prophet  is 
dead,"  was  heard  in  every  variety  of  tone.  He  had 
been  thirty-three  years  their  great  Head  Centre,  and 
it  had  never  struck  the  common  people  that  he  might, 
could,  would,  or  should  die.  He  was  buried  in  a  large 
green  square  near  the  Eagle  Pass.  Many  tons  of  gran- 
ite have  been  placed  over  the  body.  Perhaps  it  was 
feared  that  the  grave  might  be  rifled.  It  is  further 
guarded  by  a  tall  iron  railing.  Four  of  his  consorts 
are  buried  in  the  same  field.  Should  the  others  decline 
to  marry  again,  the  same  posthumous  honor  will  be 
accorded  their  remains.  Some  of  his  descendants 
have  become  Catholics. 

Nothing  can  be  more  bleak  and  desolate  than  the 
Mormon  graveyard  on  the  bare  hillside.  Thickly  are 
the  graves  planted  in  the  sandy  bench,  where  the 
wind  often  howls  and  whistles  dismally.  Some  have 
headstones,  others  pillars,  others  curious  little  head- 
boards coming  to  a  point  on  the  top.  The  husband 
is  sometimes  buried  at  one  end  of  the  family  lot,  his 
consorts  in  the  order  of  their  respective  deaths  beside 
him.  One  man  had  four  babes  lying  at  his  feet,  all 
born  in  1870.  On  several  women's  tombstones  are 
carved  two  hands  clasped  in  the  Odd  Fellows'  grip, 
with  the  legend,  "  She  was  true."  In  the  cemetery  no 
soft   green    turf  can   be   seen,  no   trees  worthy  of  the 

188 


Forty   Tears  in  the  American   Wilderness 

name;  it  is  a  piece  of  the  original  desert,  planted  with 
the  dead,  and  contains  no  sign  of  faith,  hope,  or  peace, 
no  touching  appeal  for  the  eternal  rest  and  perpetual 
light  which  poor  humanity  craves.  In  descending  the 
lonely  mountain  side,  it  was  a  relief  to  see  the  grave 
of  a  penitent  sinner.*  Some  kind  hand  had  placed 
upon  it  a  rustic  cross,  on  which  were  scratched  the 
consoling  words,  "  May  he  rest  in  peace.    Amen." 

Neither  where  the  Mormons  worship  when  living, 
nor  where  they  lie  when  dead,  is  any  emblem  of 
Christianity  to  be  seen.  In  the  huge  ugly  Tabernacle, 
where  eight  or  nine  thousand  people  have  sometimes 
assembled,  there  is  no  token  of  Christian  faith  ;  no 
cross,  no  dove,  no  reminder  of  death,  judgment,  or 
heaven  ;  no  gentle  Jesus  gazing  down  on  them  from 
the  gray  walls.  Only  lions  couchant  and  a  beehive 
adorn  the  unsightly  edifice.  The  preaching  in  Mor- 
mon assemblies  is  said  to  be  in  keeping  with  the 
decorations.    If  Gentiles  are  present,  they  are  preached 

*In  Utah  criminals  condemned  to  death  are  not  commonly 
hanged.  They  are  shot  on  their  coffins.  The  above-mentioned, 
being  sentenced  to  death,  asked  for  the  Sisters.  He  told  them  he 
wished  for  a  priest.  The  Mormons  had  offered  to  bring  one,  but 
he  feared  one  of  themselves  would  personate  a  priest  to  extort 
from  him  secrets  about  others,  and  about  the  situation  of  certain 
mines.  The  Sisters  were  naturally  shocked  ;  but  the  criminal  said  : 
"  They  are  capable  of  worse  than  that;  I  have  been  with  them  so 
long  that  I  know  the  depths  of  their  depravity."  They  brought 
him  a  genuine  priest,  and  he  made  his  peace  with  God.  He  lived 
a  few  moments  after  being  shot,  and  was  assisted  and  consoled  by 
the  priest  to  the  last.  R.  I.  P.  He  did  not  wish  to  be  interred  in 
the  Mormon  Golgotha, 

J  89 


Forty    T'cars  in  the  American    Wilderness 

at;  if  only  Mormons,  the  crops,  the  weather,  and  other 
mundane  subjects  are  introduced. 

Descending  from  the  unexpressibly  dreary  hiding- 
places  of  the  dead,  "  the  valley  lay  smiling  before  me." 
Mazes  of  orchards,  farms,  garden  patches,  with  far-away 
sunny  peaks,  diversified  the  grand  panorama.  But  it 
is  all  of  earth,  earthly.  Among  the  turrets  of  the 
temple  there  is  no  suggestion  of  heaven.  From  the 
elliptical  dome  of  the  graceless,  unwieldy  Tabernacle 
no  symbol  of  redemption,  no  towering  CROSS  arises. 
The  beautiful  valley  has  perhaps  seen  more  sin,  and 
sorrow,  and  unsanctified  suffering  than  any  other  vale 
on  earth.  Amid  its  picturesque  scenery  only  the 
Catholic  college,  hospital,  and  cathedral  give  a  ray  of 
hope  for  the  purity  and  sanctity  of  the  future.  Only 
the  Catholic  Church  can  speak  to  the  intelligent  Mor- 
mon with  authority.  It  is  the  sole  institution  he  re- 
spects, though  his  passions  be  in  conflict  with  her  pure 
teachings.  He  sees  little  difference  between  the  si- 
multaneous polygamy  grafted  on  his  religion  by  Brig- 
ham  Young  and  the  successive  polygamy  legalized 
wherever  divorce  holds  sway. 

The  Catholic  Church  purified  the  pagan  world  of 
the  Caisars,  and  made  her  austere  virtue  a  common- 
place thing  among  a  people  just  converted  from  the 
worship  of  Bacchus  and  Venus.  It  is  more  difificult 
to  reclaim  those  who  have  fallen  from  their  high  estate 
as  Christians  into  the  vices  of  heathenism.  But  we 
can  pray,  and  hope,  and  say  a  word  in  season.  Some- 
thing has  already  been  done  towards  attracting  these 

190 


Portv    Years   in   the   American    Vli/derness 

misguided  people  to  her  communion.  More  will  fol- 
low. May  this  only  true  civilizer,  this  divine  institu- 
tion for  the  saving  of  souls,  make  a  lasting  home 
among  the  smiling  gardens  of  Utah,  And  may  every 
erring  child  of  the  falseness  and  fanaticism  of  the  Mor- 
mon patriarch,  renouncing  sin  and  cleaving  unto  right- 
eousness, find  rest  and  salvation  in  the  chaste  embraces 
of  our  mighty  Mother,  the  Holy,  Catholic,  and  Apos- 
tolic Church,  One  and  Indivisible. 

[Judge  Anderson,  after  a  calm,  impartial,  and  ex- 
haustive investigation,  has  decided  that  membership  in 
the  Mormon  church  is  incompatible  with  allegiance  to 
this  nation;  that  the  teachings,  practices,  and  aims  of 
that  church  are  antagonistic  to  the  government,  and 
utterly  subversive  of  good  morals ;  and  that  an  alien 
who  is  a  member  of  that  church  is  not  a  fit  person  to 
be  made  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  He  therefore 
denies  the  application  of  several  men  who  have  taken 
the  Mormon  oaths,  to  become  citizens.  (See  Salt 
Lake  City  Tribune,  December  i,  1889,  and  previous 
numbers.) 

In  view  of  the  overwhelming  mass  of  evidence  from 
Mormon  authorities*  by  which  the  learned  judge 
arrived  at  this  decision,  Bancroft's  "Utah,"  vol.  31 
"  Pacific  States  Series,"  must  be  considered,  in  many 
parts,  mere  romance,  more  like  the  work  of  a  Mor- 
mon pamphleteer  than  of  an  impartial  historian,  as 
a  scathing  review  of  that  work  in  the  same  paper 
shows.] 

*  Journal  of  Discourses,  Deseret  JVe-ws,  etc. 
191 


WHEN  BRIGHAM  YOUNG  WAS  KING 

I 

(T  IS  about  thirty-four  years,  so  far  as  we  can 
ascertain,  since  the  first  mass  was  said  in  Salt 
Lake  City.  The  celebrant  was  Rev.  E.  Kelly. 
The  place  was  an  old  adobe  building  on  the  site  of  the 
present  church.  The  Mormon  capital  was  then  under 
the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  Right  Rev.  Eugene  O'Con- 
nell,  Bishop  of  Grass  Valley,  California.  In  December, 
1866,  Father  Foley  became  second  resident-pastor. 
Utah  passed  from  Bishop  O'Connell  to  Bishop  Mache- 
bceuf,  and  from  him  to  Archbishop  Alemany,  who,  in 
January,  1 871,  appointed  Rev.  P.  Walsh  pastor.  Father 
Walsh  built  the  present  church,  which  was  dedicated 
November  26,  1871,  under  the  patronage  of  St.  Mary 
Magdalen.  It  is  situated  on  the  west  side  of  East 
Second  street,  about  200  feet  north  of  the  northwest 
corner,  and  is  34  by  60  feet,  exclusive  of  the  sanctuary. 
The  basement  is  built  of  stone,  the  rest  of  brick.  The 
style  is  said  to  be  Gothic,  but  it  did  not  strike  the 
writer  as  distinctively  such.  It  has  a  clean,  neat  ap- 
pearance, but  is  rather  small  for  the  congregation. 
Sometimes  it  is  called  in  the  holy  city  "  The  Little 
Church  around  the  Corner." 

In  August,  1873,  Father  Scanlan  succeeded  Father 
Walsh,  and  thirteen  years  later  became  Vicar  ApostoUc 

192 


When  Brigham    Toung  Was  King 

of  Utah.  All  Hallows  College,  St.  Mary's  Academy, 
St.  Joseph's  School  for  small  boys,  convents  and 
schools  at  Ogden,  Park  City,  Silver  Reef,  and  three 
hospitals  are  but  a  few  of  the  good  works  set  on  foot 
by  this  zealous  prelate.  Catholics  in  Utah  have  in- 
creased a  hundred  per  cent  during  the  last  ten  years. 
In  no  other  part  of  America  have  they  had  such  a 
struggle  for  existence.  They  came  at  the  risk  of  their 
lives.  Not  open  warfare,  as  in  parts  of  New  England, 
was  to  be  dreaded  as  much  as  secret  assassination, 
taught  and  justified  under  the  name  of  "blood  atone- 
ment "  by  the  Latter-Day  Saints,  who,  as  avenging 
angels,  sometimes  destroyed  members  of  their  own 
body,  through  love,  to  procure  them  a  more  certain  ad- 
mission to  the  Mormon  heaven,  and  were  always  ready, 
when  so  directed,  to  destroy  the  intruding  Gentile, 
through  hatred.  The  priests  were  threatened  and  cir- 
cumvented in  every  possible  way.  But  Father  Kelly 
averted  serious  consequences  by  a  bold  stroke  of  pol- 
icy ;  he  put  himself  under  the  protection  of  the  arch- 
conspirator,  Young,  himself,  and  caused  it  to  be  gener- 
ally understood  that,  if  he  were  made  away  with  by  the 
belligerent  Indians, —  always  convenient  scapegoats  for 
Mormon  atrocities, —  he  had  friends  in  high  places  who, 
like  the  twenty  thousand  Cornish  men  of  the  ballad, 
"  should  know  the  reason  why." 

Poorer  and  meaner,  then,  in  a  worldly  sense,  than 

the  beginnings  of  the  Church  in  the  Cenacle,  in  the 

upper  chamber,  or  on  the  morning  of  Pentecost,  were 

the  beginnings  of  the  Church  in  Utah  —  a  handful  of 

13  193 


When  Brigham    Toung  Was  King 

miners,  smelters,  stokers,  besmeared  and  begrimed,  led 
by  apostolic  men,  whose  garments  were  poorer  than 
the  coarse  raiment  of  their  disciples,  who  felt  the  pinch- 
ing of  hunger,  and  whose  privations  gave  additional  zest 
to  their  cheerfulness.  But  "  Jesus  stood  in  the  midst 
of  them,"  and  Mary  was  their  shield.  And  so,  having 
nothing,  they  possessed  all  things. 

II 

Before  the  opening  of  the  railroad,  few,  *  besides 
the  saints,  found  their  way  to  Salt  Lake  City.  Occa- 
sionally, some  trappers  and  traders,  a  Mexican  caravan, 
or  a  band  of  Indians  fresh  from  the  war-path,  stood 
without  the  walls  begging  admission;  but  as  a  rule  the 
inmates  were  little  disturbed  by  pilgrims  from  the  outer 
world.  The  soldiers  and  the  railways  made  it  compara- 
tively safe  to  enter  the  capital;  the  Gentiles  began  to 
come,  and  not  a  few  of  them  came  to  stay  in  Zion. 

In  1870  Right  Rev.  James  O'Gorman,  Vicar  Apos- 
tolic of  Nebraska,  sent  two  religiciises  of  his  vicariate 

*  Gold-seekers  and  other  emigrants,  going  by  land  to  Califor- 
nia, sometimes  visited  Utah,  not  always  a  safe  proceeding,  as  the 
Mountain  Meadow  massacre  showed.  But  this  terrible  blot  on  his 
memory  King  Brigham  desired  should  be  forgotten.  The  cairn, 
—  who  would  expect  to  find  a  Celtic  cairn  in  Utah.''  —  the  stone  on 
which  was  engraved,  "  Here  one  hundred  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren, from  Arkansas,  were  massacred  in  cold  blood,  early  in 
September,  1857,"  and  the  red-cedar  cross,  with  the  words,  "Ven- 
geance is  mine,  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord,"  were  all  destroyed 
by  order  of  Brigham.  When  the  massacre  of  these  emigrants  took 
place,  Young  was  Governor  of  Utah,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Militia,  and  Indian  Agent. 

194 


When  Brigham   Toung  Was  King 

to  the  western  portion  of  the  continent  on  some  busi- 
ness connected  with  the  good  of  reHgion,  and  it  was 
arranged  that  their  itinerary  should  include  Salt  Lake 
City.  At  that  period,  and  indeed  until  his  death  in 
1877,  Brigham  Young  was  de  facto  king  of  Utah,  and 
had  been  privately  anointed  king  in  an  early  period  of 
his  despotism.  Immigrants  had  come  in  myriads.  Be- 
fore  1853  fifteen  thousand  had  found  their  way  to  the 
region  of  the  blest.  The  saints  were  in  a  chronic  state 
of  oriental  prostration  before  the  terrible  Mokanna, 
some  of  whose  sons  and  daughters  assumed  superiority 
over  their  fellow-citizens,  as  being  of  the  "  blood-royal  " 
of  King  Brigham. 

The  religieuses  reached  the  holy  city  in  June,  and 
never  could  they  forget  the  beautiful  appearance  it  pre- 
sented as  they  moved  towards  it.  In  form  it  seemed 
semicircular.  Beyond  it,  lying,  as  one  might  say,  at 
its  feet,  was  the  vast  sheet  of  water  known  as  the  Great 
Salt  Lake.  On  almost  every  side,  sheltered  by  the 
Oquirrh  and  the  Wasatch  ranges,  its  rich  lawns  and  fra- 
grant meadows  contrasted  charmingly  with  the  bleak 
hills  and  alkali  deserts  in  its  vicinity.  Travelers  arriv- 
ing in  early  summer,  when  the  place  looks  its  best, 
were  wont  to  call  it  the  "  Pink  City,"  from  the  thou- 
sands of  peach  trees  scattered  in  every  direction,  whose 
limbs  and  branches  were  covered  with  the  beautiful 
pink  blossoms  of  that  luscious  fruit. 

Their  descent  into  Zion  rather  drove  away  the  illu- 
sion as  to  its  extraordinary  beauty.  The  streets  were 
over  one  hundred  and  thirty  feet   wide,  and   seemed 

195 


When  Brigham   Young  Was  King 

wider  because  many  of  the  dwellings  were  set  far  back 
from  the  sidewalks.  Being  unpaved,  they  were  seas  of 
mud,  or  saharas  of  stifling  dust,  according  as  rain  or 
sunshine  prevailed.  On  either  side  were  artificial  brook- 
lets, in  which  water  from  the  mountain  streams  spar- 
kled in  the  sun,  and  from  which  the  gardens  were  watered 
by  means  of  a  hose,  for  rain  seldom  falls  in  the  sacred 
city.  The  houses  were  mostly  low,  one  or  two  stories, 
and  each  had  peach  and  apple  trees  in  front,  and  in  the 
rear,  currant  and  gooseberry  bushes,  with  some  kitchen 
vegetables.  Around  them  were  hideous  walls  of  mud 
and  adobes,  and  the  gates  at  the  entrance  were  prison- 
like. Indeed,  a  great  part  of  the  town  was  surrounded 
by  a  wall,  never  finished,  of  which  little  remains  save 
some  weed-grown  mounds.  It  has  crumbled  away,  as 
will,  also,  the  fanaticism  it  was  erected  to  protect.  At 
one  place  there  were  several  rows  of  low  huts,  con- 
nected by  boards.  A  lady  asked  a  boy:  "Whose house 
is  that?"  pointing  to  one  of  them.  "My  father's,"  was 
the  reply.  "And  the  next?"  "My  father's."  "And 
the  next?"  "My  father's."  "Why,  your  father  seems 
to  own  them  all?"  "No,  only  five;  my  mother  lives 
in  the  first,  and  my  four  aunts  in  the  others."  Plural 
consorts  in  Utah  were  called  aunts,  and  were  regarded 
as  intruders  by  the  real  wife  and  her  progeny. 

The  visitors  were  soon  in  the  heart  of  the  shabby 
little  town.  It  was  a  bright  day  in  leafy  June,  and  the 
cloudless  sky,  the  balmy  air,  the  mountains  towering 
above  the  city  on  every  side,  "seemed  to  proclaim," 
wrote  one  of  them,  "  Great  is  the  Lord,  and  holy  is  His 

196 


When  Brigham   Toung  Was  King 

name."  About  Salt  Lake  City  there  is  a  peculiar 
optical  illusion  as  to  distances,  owing  to  the  extreme 
clearness  of  the  air.  "  How  far  off  do  you  think  that 
mountain  is?"  asked  a  friend  of  one  of  the  religieuses. 
"  I  should  say,  about  half  a  mile,"  was  the  reply.  It 
was  twenty-five  miles  distant. 

Ill 

Never  was  town  or  city  "boomed  "  or  puffed  into 
fictitious  renown  like  the  Mormon  capital.  At  this 
epoch  it  was  really  only  a  mean,  straggling  little  col- 
lection of  huts,  houses,  and  dugouts,  and  so  it  would 
be  still  were  it  not  for  the  incoming  of  the  hated  Gen- 
tile. Its  site,  on  the  "alluvial  cone"  of  City  Creek, 
was  in  what  its  projectors  styled  the  Jordan  Valley. 
No  lack  of  ground  room  here  ;  it  was  divided  into  ten- 
acre  squares,  each  square  into  eight  lots,  which  were 
afterwards  divided  and  subdivided.  To  walk  around 
one  of  these  blocks  is  to  walk  half  a  mile.  Except  the 
area,  and  the  heads  of  some  of  the  saints,  almost  every- 
thing about  the  concern  was  small  —  small  houses, 
small  gardens,  small  schools,  if  any.  Even  the  migra- 
tions and  Mormon  wars  were  small  affairs.  In  fact, 
there  were  not  saints  enough  in  the  territory  they 
loved  to  call  "the  State  of  Deseret "  to  make  a  decent 
strike  or  riot  in  a  third-rate  city.  Mormonism  was 
then  what  it  is  now,  a  mere  local  nuisance.  As  long 
as  it  remained  pent  up  among  the  mountains,  and  hid- 
den from  the  rest  of  the  world,  it  might,  perhaps,  live. 
But  it  could  never  keep  its  head  aloft  before  the  cloud 

197 


When  Brigham    Toung  Was  King 

of  witnesses  which  the  railroad  poured  in,  or  coexist 
with  daily  Gentile  intercourse,  unless  reinforced  from 
foreign  shores.  Yet  the  poor  creatures,  who  formed 
the  rank  and  file,  were  daily  told  it  was  their  destiny  to 
bring  the  nations  of  the  earth  under  their  heel ;  that 
they  were  the  chosen  people  who  would  rule  Babylon 
from  the  high  places,  and  that  they  would  long  since 
have  taken  possession  of  the  earth  had  not  iniquity 
abounded  and  t'he  charity  of  many  waxed  cold. 

Passing  a  street  full  of  stores,  built  of  sun-dried 
brick.  Temple  Block,  once  the  centre  of  the  city,  was 
reached.  It  is  on  a  square  of  ten  acres,  surrounded  by 
a  high  wall,  which  has  several  gates.  Within  the  en- 
closure are  the  Temple  and  the  huge,  ugly,  turtle- 
shaped  Tabernacle.  The  dreariness  of  the  scene  is 
enlivened  by  green  growing  things  on  every  side,  espe- 
cially young  trees  planted  in  straight  rows  across  the 
big  blocks.  The  pretty  houses  nestling  among  orchards 
and  gardens  belong  chiefly  to  the  Apostles,  and  the 
lesser  lights  of  Mormonism.  The  best  are  owned  by 
the  "Prophet,  Seer,  and  Revelator,"  Brigham.  The 
Lion  House,  on  the  northern  side,  where  most  of  his 
consorts  live,  has  a  large  lion  sculptured  on  the  portico, 
"resting,  but  watchful,"  a  delicate  compliment  to  the 
owner,  who  styles  himself  "  the  Lion  of  the  Lord." 
The  house  is  rather  picturesque,  with  pointed  gables 
and  narrow  dormer  windows  projecting  from  the  steep 
roof.  It  was  half  embowered  in  trees,  and  climbing 
plants,  for  the  Prophet,  who  had  the  best  of  every- 
thing, had  the  finest  gardens  between  the  Missouri  and 

198 


When  Brighani    Toung  Was  King 

his  dwelling.  A  row  of  offices  connects  this  with  his 
official  mansion,  the  famous  Beehive  House,  a  large 
white  building,  balconied  to  the  roof,  with  an  observa- 
tory on  the  top.  Its  chief  ornament  is  a  huge  gilt  bee- 
hive, the  beehive  being  the  symbol  of  industry  in  the 
Home  of  the  Faithful.  Near  these  buildings  were  the 
storehouses  for  the  tithing  levied  on  all ;  to  this  day 
one  may  see  people  bringing  offerings  to  the  tithing- 
house.  Behind  his  houses  were  corrals  and  stables  for 
his  flocks  and  herds.  Temple  Block  and  the  Prophet's 
Block  were  walled  in  like  forts;  the  sameness  of  the 
fortifications  was  broken  by  bulging  bastions.  Before 
the  tithing  stores  the  wall  still  stands  as  it  did  when 
Brigham  Young  was  king;  by  other  parts  it  has 
crumbled  away,  or  been  replaced  by  less  unsightly 
fences. 

The  temple  was  going  up  slowly.  Before  the  rail- 
road era,  the  pale  granite  used  in  its  construction  was 
brought  in  as  required  by  bullock  teams.  It  was  omi- 
nous that  Mr.  Ward,  who  designed  it,  and  who  sculp- 
tured the  lions  couchant  over  the  Lion  House,  seceded 
from  the  religion  of  the  saints,  and  became,  as  Brigham 
said,  a  vile  apostate.  More  than  a  quarter  of  a  century 
has  passed  since  that  untoward  event  startled  the  deni- 
zens of  the  holy  city,  and  the  massive  temple  is  still 
unfinished.  Defections  have  always  been  common 
among  those  who  could  get  away.  Hence  the  oft  re- 
peated counsel  to  the  saints  in  other  lands  "to  flee  to 
Zion,"  and  seek  rest  "in  the  chambers  of  the  Lord  in 
the  mountains,"  to  replace  the  backsliders. 

199 


When  Brigham    Young  Was  King 

In  the  Endowment  House,  near  Temple  Block,  are 
administered  the  secret  ordinances  of  Mormonism. 
Other  official  buildings  may  be  seen  from  the  balconies 
of  the  Mormon  pontiff,  but  none  very  imposing.  The 
log-cabins  of  early  days  have  almost  entirely  disap- 
peared. Adobe  cottages  are  scattered  over  the  sloping 
ground,  some  in  picturesque  situations  on  the  borders 
of  streams,  in  the  midst  of  smiling  meadows,  or  crown, 
ing  grassy  knolls.  Wings  were  often  added  to  the 
original  huts,  and  these  dismal  succursales  were  appro- 
priated to  "plural "  consorts.  Specimens  of  primitive 
abodes,  with  roofs  slanting  inward  and  board  windows, 
still  remain.  The  Three-Wife  House,  a  long,  low,  one- 
story  building,  was  pointed  out  as  a  sample  of  the  best 
structures  of  the  Royal  epoch.  It  is  only  from  an  ele- 
vation these  places  could  be  traced,  as  they  were  pent 
up  behind  hideous  ramparts  of  mud  and  cobble-stones. 
Some  dwellings  stood  back  among  clumps  of  trees, 
giving  no  sign  of  the  life  that  was  within  them,  save 
the  inarticulate  noises  of  bawling  babies.  Much  of  the 
squalor,  degradation,  and  misery  of  this  oasis  in  the 
desert  was  gracefully  draped  by  the  umbrageous  trees 
and  luxuriant  climbing  plants  of  the  summer  season. 

IV 

Camp  Douglas  is  said  to  cover  the  first  spot  in  Utah 
claimed  in  the  name  of  the  United  States.  It  was  a 
capital  offense  to  entertain  a  soldier  ;  "  no  soldier  shall 
sleep  one  night  in  Salt  Lake  City,"  the  Mormons  con- 
stantly protested.     One  evening,  so  some  old  residents 

200 


When  Brigham   Toung  Was  King 

say,  Colonel  O'Connor,  U.  S.  A.,  with  two  or  three 
comrades,  came  into  the  city  unarmed.  The  great 
Brigham  at  once  heard  of  the  intrusion.  "Are  they 
armed?"  he  asked  ;  being  told  they  were  not,  he  said, 
magnanimously:  "Let  them  come;  their  intentions  are 
peaceable,  or  they  would  not  have  come  hither  without 
arms."  Soon  after,  the  stars  and  stripes  were  planted 
at  the  camp,  to  float  over  a  place  which  heretofore  de- 
fied every  king,  emperor,  and  president  on  earth,  and 
acknowledged  only  the  terrible  Brigham.  But  the 
saints  had  no  welcome  for  the  star-spangled  banner.* 
More  than  once  has  it  been  insulted  in  Utah;  perhaps 
the  only  place  on  earth  where  it  has  been  trailed  in  the 
dust,  and  set  at  half-mast  on  the  Fourth  of  July. 

The  religicuses  were  guests  of  two  Irish  ladies  whom 
they  had  known  in  Omaha,  at  the  Townsend  House, 
the  best  hotel  in  the  place.  A  little  before  there  were 
no  hotels.  Gentiles  were  not  encouraged  to  come  in; 
the  few  who  came  boarded  in  Mormon  families,  who 
regarded  them  as  heathens,  and  never  allowed  them  to 
know  anything  of  their  domestic  concerns.  But  the 
railroads  brought  so  many  Gentiles  that  lodging-houses 
became  a  necessity.  One  of  the  hostesses,  Mrs. 
McClosky,    described    herself   as   grand-niece  of  John 

*The  Mormons  were  taught  that  they  owed  no  allegiance  to 
the  government  at  Washington.  Though  never  as  numerous  as 
the  population  of  a  tenth-rate  city  in  the  United  States,  they 
swore  to  revenge  on  this  nation  the  blood  of  Joe  Smith,  and  bring 
all  the  countries  of  the  earth  into  subjection  to  the  saints.  They 
were  constantly  threatening  to  unsheath  the  sword  of  the  Almighty, 
not  only  in  word  but  in  deed. 

201 


When  Brighain   Toung  Was  King 

Philpot  Curran.  Her  husband  kept  the  largest  livery 
stables  in  the  city.  The  other,  Mrs.  Williams,  was  a 
convert  to  the  faith.  The  proprietors  of  the  inns  were 
Mormons;  the  work  was  done  and  the  guests  were 
waited  on  by  their  so-called  wives,  the  only  domestic 
servants  among  them.  The  worst  physical  inconven- 
iences of  this  heavenly  Jerusalem  were  fleas  and  sand- 
flies, which  all  but  assassinated  newcomers.  They  are 
felt  even  now,  despite  the  wire  screens  that  barricade 
doors  and  windows. 

In  those  days,  which  already  seem  so  distant,  it  was 
deemed  only  right  and  proper  that  Gentile  visitors 
should  pay  their  respects  at  Camp  Douglas,  as  an  earn- 
est of  their  sympathy  with  the  United  States,  hereto- 
fore considered  in  Utah  as  a  weak,  heathenish,  foreign 
power,  destined  to  bite  the  dust,  and  one  day  beg  for 
bread  and  quarter  at  the  gates  of  the  saints.  The 
President  had  foolishly  tried,  with  scarcely  a  shadow  of 
success,  to  usurp  the  mitre  of  the  Mormon  Mikado.  At 
no  time  has  loyalty  to  the  Washington  government 
been  a  feature  of  the  patriotism  of  the  Utah  hierarchy. 
The  ladies  brought  their  guests  in  a  carriage  up  the 
winding  road  of  some  five  miles.  One  of  the  Sisters 
wrote  to  a  friend:  "I  assure  you  it  gave  us  indescrib- 
able pleasure  to  see  the  United  States  flag  waving  aloft 
once  more.  It  was  like  meeting  an  old  friend.  We  had 
not  seen  it  since  we  left  Nebraska."  When  the  car- 
riage stopped  at  the  top  of  the  circuitous  path  that  led 
to  the  fort,  the  party  was  cordially  welcomed,  and  re- 
ceived with  great  courtesy,  by  Colonel  Morrow,  then 


When  Brighatn   Young  Was  King 

in  command,  with  whom  the  religieuses  were  already 
acquainted,  The  extreme  beauty  of  the  scene  from 
the  pink  city  in  the  valley  to  the  vague  blue  of  the  dis- 
tant mountain  range  was  not  unappreciated  by  the 
group.  After  some  commonplace  talk  about  the  capi- 
tal and  its  approaches,  the  colonel  spoke  of  the  horrid 
fanaticism  that  desecrated  a  spot  to  which  nature  had 
been  so  bountiful.  He  was  an  Episcopalian,  but  he 
"loved  the  Pope  better  than  any  other  ecclesiastic,  and 
hoped  His  Holiness  would  come  to  the  United  States 
if  Victor  Emmanuel  should  presume  to  treat  him 
badly." 

If  it  was  necessary  to  call  at  Fort  Douglas,  it  was 
still  more  essential  that  all  birds  of  passage  should 
alight  at  the  Beehive.  The  colonel  offered  to  escort 
the  religieuses  to  the  official  residence  of  the  potentate 
at  whose  nod  so  many  thousands  trembled.  Their 
hostesses  deemed  it  risky  for  them  to  go  unattended. 
But  after  studying  the  matter  in  all  its  bearings,  it 
seemed  that  such  attendance,  on  the  part  of  a  military 
man,*  might  not  be  pleasing  to  the  powerful  magnate 
whom  all  were  eager  to  propitiate.  The  most  affection- 
ate feehngs  that  ever  prevailed  between  the  controlling 
powers  of  the  Mormon  church  and  the  United  States 
officials  might  be  described  by  the  words  "armed  neu- 
trality." "You  are  perfectly  safe,  said  the  colonel  "in 
going  without  the  escort  I  should  feel  honored  to  give 

*The  United  States  officials  did  all  they  could  to  propitiate 
the  Mormons,  and  overlooked  much  provocation  given  them  by 
people  who  were  always  wanting  to  pose  as  martyrs  or  victims. 

203 


When  Brigha7Jt    Young  Was  King 

you.  You  will  be  graciously  received  on  your  own 
account.  But  be  not  surprised  if  the  Prophet*  does  not 
remove  his  hat  in  your  presence.  Many  royal  princes 
and  other  high  dignitaries  from  Europe  and  elsewhere, 
have  called  on  him,  but  he  has  never  uncovered  his 
head  to  any  of  them."  Brigham  often  declared,  with 
characteristic  modesty,  that  he  was  second  to  no  man 
living,  and  would  doff  the  hat  to  none. 

The  party  descended  from  the  fort  and  drove  past 
Temple  Block  and  the  thoroughfare  now  known  as 
Brigham  street,  thinking  of  the  meeting  to  take  place 
the  following  day,  from  which  the  religieuses  recoiled. 
The  Lion  House  and  the  Beehive  House  were  in  their 
route,  giving  no  sign  of  their  seventy  or  eighty  inmates. 
Half  hidden  in  their  pale  green  shrubbery,  they  looked 
calm  and  tovely  sleeping  in  the  noonday  sunshine.  But 
their  beauty  was  that  of  a  convict  ship  on  the  southern 
seas,  and  the  gleaming  whiteness  of  their  walls  was  as 
the  whiteness  of  sepulchres,  which  hides  all  manner  of 
corruption. 

V 

Next  day,  at  the  hour  appointed  for  the  audience, 
the  two  religieuses  presented  themselves  at  the  Bee- 
hive, the  official  residence  of  Governor  Young.  They 
were  received  at  the  porch  by  some  apostles,  and  ush- 
ered into  a  spacious  reception  room,  at  one  end  of 
which  was  a  platform  about  one  foot  high  and  twelve 

*King  Brigham  was  frequently  called  "The  Prophet," 
though,  as  a  rule,  his  forecasting  was  very  unfortunate,  and  his 
prophecies  never  verified. 

204 


When  Brighani   Young  Was  King 

feet  deep.  On  this  were  thirteen  seats,  arranged  in  a 
semicircle;  the  centre  seat  was  a  sort  of  throne  for 
Brigham ;  the  six  on  either  side  were  for  his  chief  bish- 
ops. Dozens  of  cane  and  walnut  chairs  were  placed  in 
close  rows  down  the  sides  of  the  room.  The  floor  was 
of  oak  and  walnut  in  alternate  strips.  The  walls  were 
decorated  with  pictures,  poor  specimens  of  art,  of  the 
great  personages  of  a  sect  in  Avhich  all  proclaim  them- 
selves saints.  The  visitors  were  escorted  to  chairs 
about  midway  down  from  the  platform,  which  was  oc- 
cupied by  Brigham  and  the  elders.  When  the  ladies 
appeared  he  and  the  others  arose.  To  their  great 
astonishment,  the  Czar  of  all  the  Mormons  uncovered 
his  head.  He  then  made  a  deep  salaam  and  moved 
towards  them. 

Brigham  was  then  in  his  seventy-first  year,  but 
looked  more  like  a  well-preserved  man  of  fifty.  He 
was  among  the  few  who  improve  in  appearance  as  they 
grow  older.  As  "  a  sharer  in  the  adversity  of  his  peo- 
ple, their  companion  and  friend,"  there  was  nothing  to 
distinguish  him  ;  he  was  simple  in  taste  and  habits,  and 
dressed  in  homespun.  But  later  he  became  fashionable. 
At  all  times  there  was  something  remarkable  in  his 
foot-gear.  Sometimes  his  feet  were  encased  in  mocca- 
sins, sometimes  in  embroidered  slippers;  on  this  occa- 
sion, they  were  hidden  in  shining  French  boots  of  the 
latest  fashion.  He  had  had  a  season  of  dudishness  ;  he 
could  use  the  curling-tongs,  and  was  even  seen  with  his 
hair  in  papers ;  artificial  curls  should  have  killed  him 
as  a  prophet ;  but,  no.     It  was  said,  he  was  quite  vain 

205 


When  Brigham   Toung  Was  King 

of  his  small,  well-formed  extremities,  which  attracted 
more  attention  than  his  head,  save  when  his  favorite 
consort  curled  his  hair.  The  gray  frieze  and  red  scarf 
of  former  days  were  discarded  ;  he  appeared  in  a  suit  of 
fine  broadcloth  of  the  newest  cut,  looking  like  an  Eng- 
lish yeoman  in  Sunday  clothes.  He  seemed  to  have 
lost  the  bluster  and  swagger  of  other  days,  and  acquired 
some  of  the  ease  and  graciousness  we  associate  with  a 
gentleman.  With  his  intimate  associates,  however,  he 
was  as  coarse  and  arrogant  as  ever.  The  self-restraint 
he  practised  before  Gentiles  was  creditable,  and  hid  his 
worst  points.  He  looked  nearly  six  feet  high,  rather 
stout,  and  had  a  kindly  though  fox-like  expression,  and 
a  habit  of  glancing  furtively  at  his  guests,  which  many 
felt  embarrassing. 

On  seeing  him  approach,  the  religieuses  stood  up  to 
await  him.  Making  another  bow,  he  shook  hands  with 
them  very  warmly,  begged  them  to  be  seated,  and  said 
effusively:  "  Ladies,  you  are  the  first  of  your  high  call- 
ing that  ever  came  among  us.  Need  I  say  you  are 
most  heartily  welcome?  I  hope  you  have  come  to 
stay  and  teach  our  children." 

Now,  we  regret  to  say  that  Brigham's  thoughts  and 
words  did  not  agree  when  he  spoke  thus.  Being  him- 
self uncultured,  he  considered  education  rather  in  the 
way  for  his  followers,  and  preached  only  the  gospel  of 
work.  Until  forced  by  the  presence  of  Gentiles,  he 
would  scarcely  allow  schools  at  all.  To  desire  educa- 
tion was  to  be  "  Gentilish."  To  sew,  weave,  work  in 
the  garden,  cook,  be  smart  in  the  dairy,  he  considered 

206 


When  Brighani    J'oiDig-  li  'a.v  King 

education  enough.  Books  would  puff  up,  and  make 
the  readers  despise  their  fathers  and  husbands.  So  far 
as  he  could  achieve  it,  education  was  neglected  or  de- 
spised. To  wish  for  it  was  to  seek  the  flesh-pots  of 
Egypt,  and  prove  that  the  leaven  of  the  gospel  had  not 
yet  fully  worked  in  the  heart.  It  was  commonly  said 
of  Orson  Pratt,  the  best  scholar  in  the  sect,  that  he 
would  apostatize  :  "  His  learning  will  lift  him  up  till  he 
topples  over."  It  was  said  that  Brigham  himself  never 
read  a  book  through ;  he  studied  men  and  things. 
When  the  subject  of  a  grammar  school  was  discussed, 
in  very  ungrammatical  language,  the  elders  agreed  that, 
if  grammar  is  truth,  "  the  sperit  will  lead  us  jest  into  it 
a  kinder  nateral  like,  and  if  it  aint,  I  aint  a  gwine  to 
bother  my  brains  and  pay  my  money  about  it." 

With  obsequious  politeness,  Brigham  inquired  what 
mission  of  mercy  had  brought  them  to  his  city,  and 
expressed  a  willingness  to  share  in  their  good  works. 
He  graciously  asked  about  the  several  institutions  in 
which  they  were  interested,  their  rules  and  duties,  and 
expatiated  on  his  own  benevolent  projects.  They  men- 
tioned a  plan  on  foot  for  the  erection  of  a  Catholic 
Church  in  his  city,  at  which  he  professed  to  be  pleased 
and  surprised.  He  besought  them  to  go  among  his 
people,  who  would  receive  them  well  and  be  proud  to 
aid  them.  They  mentioned  that  a  priest  would  make 
a  collection  in  the  ensuing  week  for  the  new  church, 
and  "his  people"  would  then  have  an  opportunity  of 
showing  their  generosity.  A  church  was  greatly 
needed  for  Catholic  settlers  and  the  many  Catholics 

207 


When  Bi'ighain    I'oung  Was  King 

that  sojourned  at  Salt  Lake  City,  en  route  for  the 
Pacific  slope  —  all  of  which  he  knew  better  than  them- 
selves. 

There  were  then  about  sixty  Gentile  families  in  the 
city,  most  of  whom  had  come  in  after  the  entrance  of 
the  soldiers. 

Brigham  had  a  pleasing  countenance,  but  not  a 
strong  one.  He  assumed  great  dignity,  so  much  so 
that  "  we  thought  it  out  of  place,"  wrote  the  elder 
religieuse.  He  had  poor  conversational  powers,  lec- 
tured rather  than  conversed,  and  required  his  visitors 
to  be  good  listeners.  He  did  the  talking,  in  the  form 
of  harangue,  rhapsody,  or  simple  narrative.  On  this 
occasion  he  took  his  guests  quite  into  his  confidence, 
spoke  of  his  woes,  not  domestic,  but  political,  of  the 
Mormon  problem, —  there  was  no  problem  in  his  eyes. 
Like  President  Davis  in  the  days  of  the  Confederacy, 
he  wanted  only  to  be  let  alone.  As  though  he  were  a 
sovereign  prince  in  the  time  when  the  divine  right  of 
kings  was  admitted,  he  always  spoke  of  the  dwellers  in 
Utah  as  "my  people."  He  told  of  their  adventures 
from  the  time  they  poured  through  the  Emigration 
Canon  until  the  recent  attempt  of  the  Washington 
government  to  disturb  them.  He  was  maligned,  per- 
secuted, threatened.  It  was  wricked  to  report  that 
people  could  not  come  and  go  without  let  or  hindrance, 
or  that  justice  would  not  be  done  to  Gentiles  in  Utah, 
where  the  judges  and  juries  were  all  saints.  He  de- 
scribed his  grievances  in  pathetic  language,  and  ap- 
peared deeply  affected  at  the  picture  his  fancy  had 

208 


When  Brighaiii    T'omig  Was  Xing' 

painted  of  the  sorrows  that  encompassed  him.  His 
health  was  not  as  good  as  he  wished  his  clientele  to 
think.  "  I  suffer  much  from  rheumatism,"  he  said, 
plaintively ;  "  at  times  I  am  obliged  to  use  this  cane 
to  support  me ;  but  I  suppose  we  must  suffer  some- 
thing," sighed  this  "  seer,  prophet,  and  revelator."  He 
was  extremely  plausible.  His  easy,  gentle  manner  and 
low-toned  monologue  made  the  listeners  drowsy,  but 
did  not  put  them  to  sleep.  His  talk  was  convincing. 
"I  listen,  and  my  companion  listens,"  wrote  Justin 
McCarthy,  describing  his  interview  with  the  prophet, 
"  and  Brigham  Young  talks  on ;  and  I  do  declare  and 
acknowledge  that  we  are  fast  drifting  into  a  hazy  men- 
tal condition,  by  virtue  of  which  we  begin  to  regard  the 
Mormon  president  as  a  victim  of  cruel  persecution,  a 
suffering  martyr,  and  an  injured  angel !  " 

But  no  sensation  of  this  nature  came  over  the  reli- 
giei{ses.  They  were  disgusted  rather  than  edified,  for 
they  had  learned  something  of  the  inner  lives  of  the 
Mormon  oligarchy.  Many  years  after,  one  of  them 
wrote:  "Stern  duty  compelled  us  to  hold  intercourse 
with  this  man.  But  we  felt  ill  at  ease  the  whole  time 
we  were  in  his  presence.  A  creeping  sensation  comes 
over  me  whenever  I  think  of  our  visit  to  the  Beehive 
House,  when  Brigham  Young  ruled  it. 

A  little  before  this  period,  a  Mormon,  named  God- 
bee,  had  openly  separated  from  the  president,  and 
headed  a  schism,  his  followers  being  known  as  God- 
beites.  They  were  quite  numerous,  and  owned  several 
good  stores  filled  with  cotton,  linen,  woolen  stuffs  of 
14  209 


When  Brigham    Toting  Was  King 

all  colors,  and  many  other  useful  commodities.  They 
absorbed  a  good  deal  of  trade,  and  to  attract  custom- 
ers in  this  eminently  religious  town,  they  placed  over 
their  shops,  in  rude  fresco,  some  scenes  from  the  Old 
Testament,  and  words  from  the  Proverbs.  The  most 
striking  scene  was  a  representation  of  Gideon's  Fleece. 
Condign  punishment  awaited  every  Mormon  that 
traded  in  these  places,  especially  after  the  signs  were 
put  up.  Circumstances  arising  from  this  rebellion 
formed  the  chief  trouble  of  the  Prophet  at  this  time, 
as  he  diffusely  explained. 

One  of  the  guests  said  she  hoped  the  Godbeites 
might  find  their  way  to  the  true  religion,  and  she  was 
happy  to  learn  that  a  church  to  the  true  and  living 
God  would  soon  be  erected. 

"You  take  great  interest  in  religion,  then?"  said 
he;  "from  this  I  conclude  you  are  not  an  Ameri- 
can? " 

A  singular  conclusion  for  an  American  bishop  of 
bishops,  who  protested  he  had  no  interest  in  anything 
but  religion. 

"  Not  by  birth,"  was  the  reply. 

"  May  I  ask,  madam,  your  native  country?" 

"  Ireland,  Mr.  President ;  I  was  born  in  Dublin." 

The  great  man  pondered  awhile. 

"  You  have  read  the  history  of  your  country,  and 
know  what  your  people  suffered  for  their  faith  for  cen- 
turies. I  do  not  find  such  a  spirit  of  unity,  stability, 
and  endurance  anywhere  as  I  find  in  the  Catholic 
Church." 


When  Brig'hani    Toung  Was  King 

The  religieiises  remarked  that  they  had  met  many 
Latter-Day  Saints  who  said  they  had  been  taught  to 
revere  the  Catholic  Church  next  to  their  own.  The 
president  gave  his  shoulders  a  French  shrug,  and  said, 
smiling:  "Yes,  yes ;  we  have  faith  in  the  Redeemer." 
Were  it  not  for  their  intuitions,  and  a  slight  knowledge 
of  his  previous  career,  they  might  have  thought  that 
this  sanctimonious  creature  was  not  far  from  the  king- 
dom of  God.  He  inquired  what  they  thought  of  his 
religion.  They  replied,  they  knew  little  of  it,  adding : 
"But  we  do  know.  President,  that  Christ  established 
on  earth  the  One,  Holy,  Catholic,  and  Apostolic  Church, 
to  which  we  belong,  and  which  you  admire." 

Brigham,  who  "was  a  law  unto  himself,"  asked  if 
they  thought  they  could  do  anything  without  the  aid 
of  the  Spirit?  "Certainly  not,"  was  the  reply;  "does 
not  the  Holy  Scripture  declare  that  no  man  can  say 
the  Lord  Jesus,  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost?" 

Then  he  spoke  of  a  pioneer  priest  of  Salt  Lake 
Valley,  to  whom  he  seemed  greatly  attached.  Father 
Kelly  would  have  been  removed  by  a  Destroying  Angel, 
or  reported  scalped  by  some  belligerent  Indian  —  the 
missing  were  often  accounted  for  in  that  way  —  but 
the  great  ruler  knew  well  that  if  one  priest  were  slain 
a  dozen  others  would  rush  in  to  replace  him.  "  He  and 
I,"  said  he,  "had  many  pleasant  chats.  I  don't  know 
why  he  discontinued  his  visits.  Had  he  come  often,  I 
cannot  say  what  effect  they  might  have  had  on  me. 
But  I  never  could  induce  him  to  become  a  Latter-Day 
Saint."     He  said    much    more   about  this   priest,  and 


When  Brighavi    Touiig  Was  King 

then  went  on  :  "  There  are  many  things  in  the  Catholic 
Church  I  greatly  admire."  He  paused,  and  the  guests 
took  this  as  a  sign  that  he  wished  to  close  the  confer- 
ence. But,  with  great  dignity  and  composure,  he 
waved  his  hand  and  signaled  them  to  remain.  One  of 
them  ventured  to  say: 

"  Mr.  President,  have  you  ever  thought  that  the 
knowledge  of  these  things  is  perhaps  a  grace  from 
God,  of  which  He  means  you  to  profit?" 

Instead  of  answering,  "Mr.  President"  detailed  the 
sufferings  of  his  people :  "  We  were  in  Omaha,  twenty- 
five  years  ago,  starving.  I  wrote  for  help  to  some  of 
my  fellow-bishops  of  your  church,  thinking  they  might 
relieve  us." 

"Did  they  send  you  anything,  Mr.  President?" 

"Yes,"  he  returned,  in  a  hollow  whisper;  "they 
sent  me  twelve  dollars  and  a  half." 

Then  he  expatiated  on  the  wonders  his  people  had 
done  in  the  wilderness;  how  they  brought  seeds  and 
agricultural  implements  over  the  mountain  range, — 
all  other  pioneers  did  the  same, —  planted  trees  which 
grew,  promoted  agriculture  by  artificial  irrigation. 
"  This  place  was  a  wild  mountain-slope  ;  my  people 
have  made  it  what  it  is."  The  self-complacency  and 
conceit  of  the  Prophet  surprised  them  ;  for,  con- 
sidering the  time  and  labor  expended  on  it,  they 
could  see  nothing  remarkable  in  the  progress  of  the 
Pink  City  of  Zion. 

He  returned  to  the  sufferings  of  the  Irish,  and  said 
"  they  were    like    his   own    people " ;    they   being   the 


]\'/ic>i    /yrio/iam    I'moiii    11  as    A'/n<^' 

purest  race  on  earth;  his  people,  the  most  licentious! 
He  had  sent  apostles  *  to  them  about  the  famine  time, 
and  after.  He  regretted  they  did  not  join  the  saints. 
They  were  good  farmers.  He  had  English,  Welsh, 
Scotch,  Americans  ;  they  were  the  only  English-speak- 
ing people  unrepresented  among  the  Mormons.  No 
doubt  he  knew  well  that  if  they  wanted  to  barter  their 
faith  for  this  world's  goods,  they  need  not  come  as  far 
as  Utah.  They  did  come,  however,  but  not  as  disci- 
ples, to  his  paradise.  They  are  among  the  teachers, 
professors,  merchants,  miners,  smelters,  of  Utah.  And 
none  are  more  highly  respected  in  the  Mormon  coun- 
try to-day  than  the  bishop,  clergy,  sisters,  and  other  use- 
ful citizens  of  the  nationality  f  he  professed  to  admire. 
The  elders,  in  semicircle  on  the  platform,  wonder- 
ing,   perhaps,    what    kept    their   chief   so    long,    arose 

*When  Moore  wrote  his  fine  song,  "The  Irish  Peasant  to  His 
Mistress,"  the  "Mistress"  being  the  Catholic  Church,  he  would 
have  been  infinitely  amused  could  he  have  looked  into  the  future 
and  seen  a  man  of  Brigham's  character  attempting  to  convert  his 
country-people.  The  "Peasant"  would  scarcely  have  answered 
the  strange  apostle,  but  would  address  his  "  Mistress"  in  the  im- 
passioned words  : 

"  Cold  in  the  earth,  at  thy  feet,  I  would  rather  be, 
Than  wed  what  I  love  not,  or  turn  one  thought  from  thee. 

tOn  Sunday,  February  9,  1890,  one  hundred  gentlemen,  of 
Irish  birth,  assembled  at  the  Walker  House,  Salt  Lake  City,  for 
the  purpose  of  forming  an  Irish  Legion,  and  inviting  their  coun- 
trymen by  birth  or  extraction  throughout  Utah  to  join  them. 
Their  president  was  the  veteran.  General  O'Connor,  who  has  been 
fighting  for  liberty  in  Zion  for  twenty-seven  years.  The  victory 
of  the  Liberals,  February  10,  1890,  was  the  Mane,  Thekel,  Phares, 
of  the  Mormons,  who  are  doomed  as  a  political  power. 

213 


When  Brigham    Toung  Was  King 

one  by  one,  and  advanced  slowly  until  they  were  in 
close  proximity  to  the  party.  Heretofore  "the  seer, 
prophet,  and  revelator  "  had  spoken  in  a  low,  confiden- 
tial tone,  and  in  a  subdued  manner,  but  now  he  lifted 
up  his  voice  and  described  his  sufferings,  "though 
loth  to  allude  to  them."  He  explained  with  fanatical 
energy  the  evil  deeds  of  the  Gentiles,  and  the  simple, 
holy  lives  of  his  followers.  Several  times  he  lost  the 
thread  of  the  discourse,  and  the  strangers  could  make 
no  sense  of  his  words,  when  to  their  relief  he  paused, 
after  prophesying  that  the  time  of  warfare  would  soon 
come.  Calling  one  of  his  bishops,  he  dispatched  him 
on  an  errand.  He  returned,  with  a  yellow  envelope, 
which  he  gave  to  his  master,  who  handed  it  to  the 
elder  religieiise,  saying:  "Accept  this;  it  may  be  of 
service  to  you,  or  you  can  distribute  it  among  the  poor 
at  my  old  hunting  grounds  near  Omaha.  I  wish  you 
would  establish  yourselves  here  to  teach  our  young 
people.     I  want  them  piously  raised." 

The  beneficiary  thanked  his  excellency,  and  said  : 
"  We  hope  to  hear  soon  of  the  erection  of  a  church  and 
of  a  resident-pastor  in  your  city.  Then,  Mr.  President, 
Sisters  will  gladly  come  to  teach  your  children."  He 
sermonized  on  the  importance  of  a  good  moral  train- 
ing, the  bishops  *  listening  with  rapt  attention.  Fi- 
nally, he  asked,  as  a  special  favor,  that  the  religieuses 
would  step  into  his  private  office  and  sign  their  names 
in  the  Visitors'  Book,  saying  :  "  I  will  value  your  signa- 

*The  hierarchy  always  spoke  with  enthusiasm  of  Brigham, 
and  treated  him  with  reverence,  especially  in  presence  of  Gentiles. 

214 


When  Brigham    Toung  Was  King 

tures  more  than  all  the  others  on  my  records."  They 
complied  with  his  graciously-given  request,  and  with- 
drew more  eagerly  than  they  had  come,  the  high  priest 
invoking  blessings  on  them  to  the  last,  with  great 
effusion  and  fervor.  He  remained  under  the  portico, 
bowed  again  and  again  as  they  entered  the  carriage, 
and  stood  gazing  after  them  as  long  as  it  was  in  sight. 
Certainly,  nothing  could  be  more  reverential  or  gra- 
cious than  his  reception  of  them,  and  they  took  care  to 
send  him  a  message  thanking  him  for  the  same.  On 
reaching  the  hotel,  they  found  that  the  yellow  envelope 
contained  twenty  dollars. 

Living  in  the  Lion  and  Beehive  houses  were  some 
nineteen  women,  whom  the  Prophet  euphoniously 
called  wives.  None  of  these  appeared  at  the  above  in- 
terview. They  were  busily  engaged  as  cooks,  seam- 
stresses, housekeepers,  housemaids,  and  one  grim-vis- 
aged  woman  kept  school  for  the  "  Young "  children. 
With  the  exception  of  one  German  and  two  English 
women,  all  the  consorts  of  the  Prophet  were  Americans, 
several  being  from  New  England.  Save  the  reigning 
favorite,*  who  ruled  Brigham  for  the  time,  these  women 
worked  hard  ;  their  wants  and  those  of  their  children 
were  supplied  with  a  very  frugal  hand.  In  early  days 
they  were  arrayed  in  cotton  gowns  and  sun-bonnets. 

*  The  person  who  ruled  the  dictator  for  the  longest  period, 
was  Amelia  Folsom,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  whom  he  "  mar- 
ried," according  to  the  Mormon  rites,  in  1868.  He  maybe  said  to 
have  discarded  the  rest  for  this  lady.  He  died  at  the  elegant 
mansion  he  erected  for  her,  called  the  Amelia  Palace,  August, 
1877.     "Miss  Amelia"  is  living  still  at  Salt  Lake  City. 

215 


W/ien  Brighatn    Voung  Was  King 

These  were  deemed  too  stylish,  and  if  there  could  be 
anything  uglier,  in  an  aesthetic  sense,  he  achieved  it  in 
the  "  dress  reform "  called  the  "  Deseret  Costume," 
which  he  planned  and  inaugurated  —  a  short  gown  of 
linsey,  a  long,  shapeless  sacque  of  antelope  skin,  and  a 
hi^h,  untrimmed  hat,  with  a  narrow  brim.  Even  his 
despotic  authority  could  not  establish  this  hideous 
mode,  and,  after  a  season  or  two,  it  was  seen  no  more. 
He  was  ferocious  in  his  denunciations  of  feminine 
vanity.  It  was  the  text  of  many  of  his  rantings  in  the 
tabernacle  ;  but,  being  grasping  and  stingy,  he  preached 
nothing  more  frequently  than  retrenchment  and  econ- 
omy. 

Every  subterfuge  was  resorted  to  to  keep  the  Gen- 
tiles in  ignorance  of  the  doings  of  his  families.  It  was 
well-known  that  some  of  his  children  were  bad,  and 
others  exceedingly  disorderly,  haughty,  and  arrogant. 
However,  as  has  frequently  been  the  case  in  Mormon 
families,  more  than  half  of  his  children,  who  were 
mostly  girls,  preceded  him  to  the  tomb.  Nor  were  his 
cold,  steely  eyes  ever  seen  to  moisten  when  death  took 
away  any  of  the  miserable  mothers,  or  robbed  the 
crowded  nurseries  of  their  babes. 

Gentiles  brought  in  the  fashions,  and  the  women  of 
the  Beehive  discarded  the  sun-bonnets.  Once,  Brig- 
ham  took  an  extraordinary  freak  of  generosity.  He 
actually  went  to  a  milliner,  and  ordered  bonnets  for  his 
consorts.  They  were  made  and  duly  delivered,  and, 
having  examined  them  minutely,  he  expressed  him- 
self much  pleased.     When  the  milliner,  a  poor  woman, 

216 


When   Brigha))i    Toung   Was   King 

presented  her  account,  $275,  he  returned  her  a  receipted 
bill  for  the  amount,  which,  he  said,  she  owed  the  chu'-ch 
for  tithing  !  Great  was  her  dismay,  but  there  was  no 
appeal  from  the  dishonesty  of  the  autocrat.  He  had 
always  a  great  facility  for  taking  advantage  of  his  op- 
portunities; the  creditor  cowered  beneath  his  steady, 
unflinching  gaze,  and  the  shrewd,  turbulent,  illiterate 
Vermonter  gained  a  victory,  of  which  an  honest  man 
would  be  ashamed. 

Among  the  public  buildings  was  a  wretched  theatre, 
lit  with  oil-lamps,  on  the  boards  of  which  the  Prophet's 
daughters  and  others  acted.  He  had  some  histrionic 
and  musical  ability,  uncultivated,  of  course,  and  was  a 
clever  mimic.  Some  of  these  qualities  passed  to  his 
descendants ;  one  became  an  actress  in  San   Francisco. 

"All  the  women  we  saw,"  wrote  one  of  the  visitors, 
"  looked  broken-hearted.  It  seemed  as  if  depression 
and  sorrow  stalked  abroad  everywhere.  We  were  glad 
when  the  time  came  to  leave  the  Pink  City.  Every 
day  we  saw  women  in  the  street,  perhaps  shopping. 
Each  had  with  her  from  three  to  six  or  seven  children ; 
she  carried  the  smallest,  the  others  held  on  to  her  or  to 
each  other.  There  was  no  mistaking  them  for  anything 
but  Mormons.  This  sort  of  exhibition  took  place 
daily.  Soon  after,  we  heard  that  such  displays  were 
forbidden.  The  children  had  mostly  light  hair  and 
fair  complexions.  Some  of  the  women  looked  like 
Swedes  and  Danes  ;  others  were  English,  Welsh,  Scotch, 
German.  All  dressed  pretty  much  as  emigrants  from 
Northern  Europe  dress  when  resting  at  Castle  Garden, 


When  Brighain    Toting  Was  King 

New  York  —  long  skirts,  shawls,  bibs,  handkerchiefs  on 
the  heads.  We  heard  there  were  Mormon  schools,  but 
did  not  see  any." 

All  who  have  visited  Salt  Lake  City  have  noticed 
the  extreme  plainness  of  the  women.  "I  protest," 
wrote  one,  "  that  only  in  some  of  the  Cretin  villages  of 
the  Swiss  mountains  have  I  seen  creatures  in  female 
form  so  dull,  miserable,  moping,  hopeless,  as  the  vast 
majority  of  these  Mormon  women."  To  use  a  harder 
and  more  emphatic  term,  their  ugliness  is  not  merely 
negative,  but  positive.  The  writer  has  asked  many  what 
they  thought  of  the  Salt  Lake  women.  "Oh,  the  sal- 
low, wizened  creatures  !  I  never  saw  such  women,"  is 
about  one  of  the  most  complimentary  answers  received. 
This  is  the  sad  consequence  of  the  iniquitous  system 
that  bears  so  heavily  on  the  hapless  women  of  the 
Beehive,  destitute  of  happiness  in  the  present  and  hope 
for  the  future.  The  sullenness  or  apathy  seen  in  the 
face  was  very  annoying  to  the  saints,  who  boast  of  the 
happiness  of  the  Mormon  women,  living  like  turtle- 
doves in  their  snug  nests  in  Zion.  The  sad  experiences 
of  a  hideous  life  have  carved  deep  lines  about  the  eyes 
and  mouth,  made  the  faces  hard  and  grim,  and  robbed 
them  of  the  softness,  tenderness,  and  grace  which  ap- 
pertain to  women. 

Brigham's  house  —  it  could  not  be  called  home — 
was  the  best  regulated  in  Utah,  *'a  pattern  to  the 
saints."  The  women  waited  on  themselves.  Their  time 
was  spent  in  washing,  cooking,  mending,  dairy-work. 
Each  consort  was  supplied,  in  rotation  and  by  weight, 

218 


When  Brigham    Touiig  Was  King 

with  necessaries.  Later,  it  was  found  more  economical 
to  have  a  general  table.  He  dined  with  his  families 
daily  at  the  Lion  House.  Some  seventy  or  eighty  sat 
down  to  dinner,  each  mother  being  surrounded  by  her 
own  children.  Every  evening,  at  seven,  they  assembled 
in  the  drawing-room  of  the  same  establishment  to  re- 
ceive the  benediction  of  the  patriarch.  If  the  women 
complained  of  their  grievances,  Brigham's  remedy  was 
"more  work."  He  had  often  to  scold  and  threaten. 
He  advised  them  to  "round  up  their  shoulders  to  en- 
dure the  afflictions  of  the  world,"  and  declared  he 
"would  rather  go  to  heaven  alone  than  have  scratching 
or  fighting  about  him."  He  protested  he  "would  do 
something  to  get  rid  of  whining  women," — all  this  from 
the  platform  of  the  tabernacle,  before  the  assembled 
thousands,  and  where  he  knew  they  could  not  retort. 

Brigham  reproached  these  wretched  creatures*  for 
being  unhappy,  "wading  through  floods  of  tears";  the 
bitter  jealousies  and  constant  acrimony  displayed  in 
their  galling  lives  annoyed  him.  Outsiders  he  received 
rather  kindly  at  times;  those  of  his  own  household  he 
politely  and  affectionately  termed  "everlasting  fools  to 
complain  of  anything."  And  if  he  happened  to  be  "too 

*If  it  was  thus  in  Brig'ham's  household,  what  was  it  in  others? 
It  may  be  asked  :  Why  did  not  those  wretched  creatures  endeavor 
to  escape?  Before  the  railroads  came  in,  and  for  long  after,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  get  away.  The  town  was  full  of  the  spies 
of  Brigham.  Besides,  to  run  away  was  to  abandon  their  children 
and  deprive  themselves  of  a  living,  such  as  it  was.  And,  as  a  rule, 
they  had  no  means,  and  no  friends  to  whom  to  go,  and  in  any  case 
they  dreaded  Mormon  vengeance. 

219 


When  Brigha77J    'i'ouijg  H^as  King 

full  of  the  spirit,"  the  mildest  name  he  had  for  some 
who  had  once  been  his  idols,  was  "termagants."  For 
their  illness  he  had  no  sympathy.  "They  get  sick  to 
shirk  work,"  he  would  say. 

Fanaticism  does  not  always  teach  patience.  The 
"peculiar  institution"  engendered  the  worst  passions 
in  the  human  heart.  Brigham  professed  to  be  able  "to 
give  the  word  of  the  Lord"  on  every  subject,  but  he 
could  never  keep  peace  in  his  own  mansions.  Another 
luminary,  Jedediah  Grant,  affirmed  that,  "if  they  could 
break  asunder  the  cable  of  the  church,  there  is  scarcely 
a  mother  in  Israel  but  would  do  it  this  day."  But  the 
tyranny  of  old  has  passed  away  forever.  Gentile  as- 
cendancy is  now  an  assured  fact.  And  it  will  be 
woman's  own  fault  if  she  should  not  in  future  receive 
the  position  Christianity  accords  her,  and  which  is  her 
right. 

A  friend,  resident  in  Utah,  says  that  the  Mormons 
are  not  up  to  the  average  in  intellect;  that  their  im- 
portations from  non-Catholic  countries  are  of  a  class 
whose  intellect  is  little  above  that  of  the  brute.  Ac- 
cording to  Mormon  teachings,  they  must  obey  the 
priesthood  in  all  things.  Their  thinking  is  done  for 
them,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  Russian  serfs. 
Physically,  the  Mormons  are  a  muscular  people;  the 
animal  prevails  in  every  way.  The  proportion  of  deaf 
and  dumb  is  greater  than  in  the  rest  of  the  United 
States.  And  of  lunatics  born  in  the  Territory,  the 
proportion  was  lo^  per  cent  in  1886  to  \2\  in  1887, 
in  the  State  lunatic  asylum. 

220 


When  Brighani    YoiDig-  Was  King 

There  are  several  superior  Catholic  educational  es- 
tablishments in  Utah.  All  Hallows  College,  directed 
by  Marist  Fathers;  St.  Mary's  Academy,  by  the  Sisters 
of  the  Holy  Cross;  a  large  Academy  in  Ogden;  another 
in  Park  City;  hospitals  in  Salt  Lake,  Ogden,  Silver 
Reef,  and  several  schools,  all  founded  by  Bishop 
Scanlan. 

On  the  Sunday  prior  to  their  leaving  the  holy  city, 
the  religieuses  heard  Mass,  which  was  offered  about 
seven  in  the  morning  by  Rev.  Father  Foley,  in  a 
log-cabin  about  30  by  17.  He  had  to  say  a  later  Mass 
at  Ogden.  There  were  fifteen  long  benches,  or  forms, 
stretching  the  length  of  the  room.  About  sixty  men, 
many  of  them  miners,  and  six  women  were  present, 
most  of  them  being  of  Irish  birth.  Everything  about 
the  humble  church  was  as  poor  as  the  stable  of  Bethle- 
hem. But  the  Adorable  Victim  was  ofTered  up  to  the 
Eternal  Father,  and  the  purest  of  Virgins  was  invoked. 
And  the  priest  on  the  altar,  and  the  religieuses  who  re- 
ceived from  his  hands  the  Bread  of  Life,  were  they  not 
the  "chaste  generation"  who  feed  on  the  "wheat  of  the 
elect  and  the  wine  that  maketh  virgins?"  After  Mass 
the  priest  besought  the  great  God  to  enlighten  and 
bless  the  city,  and  make  it,  indeed,  a  holy  city,  and 
give  to  the  dwellers  therein  light  to  know  His  will,  and 
grace  to  do  it.  And  when  all  knelt  to  offer  the  Rosary 
for  this  intention,  the  prayers  of  great,  strong  men,  like 
the  voice  of  many  waters,  were  heard  ascending  to 
heaven.  And  who  will  say  that  these  and  many  such 
prayers  have  not  been  gloriously  answered,  when  the 


When  Brig-ham    Toutig  Was  King 

answer  is  more  than  faith  would  ask,  and  can  be  seen 
and  felt?  The  beautiful  Convent,  where  every  ac- 
complishment is  taught  under  the  auspices  of  Mary; 
the  handsome  College,  where  the  youth  of  the  Terri- 
tory, when  they  ask  for  intellectual  bread,  will  not 
receive  a  stone;  the  spacious,  well-appointed  hospital 
where  consecrated  virgins  assuage  the  anguish  of  every 
sufferer,  whether  Greek  or  barbarian,  bond  or  free; 
the  children  of  two  religious  congregations  teaching 
the  young  in  Zion  itself;  the  bishop  and  clergy 
reverenced  by  a  people  who,  in  earlier  days,  would  have 
stoned  them,  as  well  as  by  their  own  loving  flock, — 
surely  a  glorious  response  to  prayer.  Verily,  the  finger 
of  God  is  here.  This  is  the  change  of  the  right  hand 
of  the  Most  High. 


ABOUT   THE    UTAH    SAINTS 

I 

Ihe  Mormons  have  always  regarded  the  island 
of  Great  Britian  as  their  best  recruiting- 
ground.  On  Christmas  Day,  1837,  their  lead- 
ers held  a  conference  at  Preston,  at  which  they 
announced  that  their  disciples  in  England  alone  num- 
bered a  thousand.  Forty-one  left  England  for  Utah, 
June  6,  1840,  being  ''the  first  saints  that  gathered  from 
a  foreign  land."  From  those  early  times  to  the  present, 
Mormonism  has  been  gaining  a  steadily  increasing  num- 
ber of  its  adherents  in  Great  Britain.  Every  State  in 
the  Union  is  also  represented  among  them.  And  it  is 
somewhat  singular  that  little  has  been  done  to  place  be- 
fore the  English-speaking  world  the  real  nature  of  a  sect 
which  has  attracted  so  many  of  the  just  and  the  unjust, 
despite  its  awful  fanaticism.  To  develop  the  tenets  and 
policy  of  the  Latter-Day  Saints  in  a  single  article  would 
not  be  possible.  But,  without  describing  their  baptism 
for  the  dead,  their  celestial  marriage  (a  euphemism  for 
polygamy),  polytheism,  the  deification  of  Adam,  whom 
Brigham  Young  blasphemously  styled  "  the  god  of  the 
universe,"  we  will  give  some  information,  gathered  on 
the  spot,  of  the  workings  of  this  peculiar  offshoot  of 
Protestantism,  merely  premising  that  its  distinctive 
features  were  polygamy, /'/«i'  politics,  farming,  and  com- 
merce.   To  build  up  the  kingdom,  to  possess  the  earth 

223 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

and  the  fulness  thereof,  to  gratify  passion,  to  make 
money  —  behold  the  ends  which  were  held  to  justify 
the  most  atrocious  ways  and  means  since  Joseph  Smith 
"  made  a  gathering  of  the  saints "  in  Ohio  and  pro- 
mulgated the  "  Book  of  Mormon  "  early  in  the  thirties. 
Away  among  the  western  mountains  of  North 
America,  in  a  picturesque  valley,  whose  inhabitants  of 
a  generation  or  two  ago  were  wont  to  describe  them- 
selves as  living  "a  thousand  miles  from  everywhere," 
on  the  southern  slope  of  a  spur  of  the  Wasatch  range 
is  the  capital  of  Mormondom,  called  from  the  dead  sea 
towards  which  it  looks,  Salt  Lake  City.  By  the 
"saints,"  indeed,  it  is  styled  Zion,  or  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem. And  the  sluggish  stream  that  laves  its  banks  is 
euphoniously  called  the  "  Jordan  River."  But  to  the 
Gentile  world  Zion  is  known  by  its  more  commonplace 
name.  In  early  days  it  was  described  to  outer  barba- 
rians as  Great  Salt  Lake  City.  To  the  name  of  every 
new  place  in  the  west  it  is  customary  to  add,  with  refer- 
ence to  the  future  rather  than  the  present,  the  impos- 
ing word  City.  But  in  visiting  such  places  one  need 
not  strain  the  eyes  looking  for  the  spires  and  domes  of 
a  vast  metropolis.  Cities  could  not  always  show  one 
decent  house  or  twenty  log-cabins.  To  reach  the 
terminus  of  a  street  in  a  "  city  "  we  have  had  to  pass  in 
review  the  drapery  of  the  population  hung  out  of  win- 
dows or  on  clothes-lines  zigzag  on  the  street.  But 
similar  drapery  may  be  seen  about  the  palaces  of 
Genova  la  Superba.  When  these  humble  hamlets  do 
really  become  cities  they  usually  drop  the  appellation. 

224 


About  the  Utali   Saints 

Denver,  when  merging  from  a  mining  camp  into  a 
town,  was  Denver  City.  Now  that  it  has  become  a 
great  railroad  centre,  with  an  immense  population, 
the  prophetic  term  has  been  dropped,  and  it  is 
simply  Denver.  Who  now  speaks  of  Omaha  City  or 
Sacramento  City?  But  we  have  still  Salt  Lake  City 
and,  for  an  obvious  reason,  Kansas  City  and  Missis- 
sippi City.  And  under  one  aspect  few  places  have  more 
right  to  the  title  than  the  Mormon  capital.  From  the 
first,  Zion  has  had  bishops  enough,  such  as  they  were, 
to  equip  half  the  great  cities  of  Christendom.  They 
were  more  numerous  than  any  other  officials  of  Church 
and  State.  And  a  city,  according  to  a  European  usage 
not  introduced  into  the  United  States,  was  held  to  be 
the  seat  of  a  bishop. 

In  their  Scriptural  style  the  early  Mormons  used  to 
describe  their  piebald  village  as  dowered  with  the 
beauty  of  Carmel  and  the  glory  of  Libanus.  Here 
dwelt  Brigham  Young,  the  prophet  of  the  Most  High, 
and  hither  came  multitudes  from  the  ends  of  the  earth 
"to  worship  in  the  place  where  his  feet  had  trod." 
Here  the  glory  of  the  Lord  had  descended  on  His 
chosen  one,  and  the  saints  exclaimed  with  enthusiasm: 
"Our  feet  have  stood  in  thy  courts,  O  Jerusalem!" 
Even  the  physical  beauty  of  the  shabby  little  town  was 
extolled,  and,  in  the  glory  of  her  vineyards  and  corn- 
fields, she  was  likened  to  "a  bride  going  forth  to  meet 
her  beloved."  Much  of  the  beauty  and  freshness 
ascribed  to  Zion  and  its  environs  was  doubtless  due  to 
the  contrast  with  the  territory  through  which  they 
15  225 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

were  reached.     Pleasant  was  the  refreshing   greenery 
of  the  holy  city  to  the  wayfarer  who  had  just  passed 
through  prairies  interminable,  where  the  sun  goes  down 
as  he  sinks  at  sea — a  dreary,  treeless,  rainless  expanse, 
where  every  species  of  growth  is  spinous,  a  desolate  al- 
kali desert,  a  blighted  arid  land,  on  which  one  might 
fancy  "the  Lord  had  rained  fire  and  brimstone  out  of 
heaven."     Even  the  spray  of  the  unpoetic  garden-hose, 
which  one  sees  everywhere  in  Salt  Lake  City,  is  grate- 
ful after  the  white  dust  of  the  wilderness,  which  irri- 
tates the  eyes,  throat,  and  nostrils.    And  the  patches  of 
alfalfa,  so  common  throughout  Zion,  are  as  squares  of 
earth  jeweled  with  emeralds,  after  the  blinding  glare  of 
the  white  sun  on  the  white  ground,  or  the  white  moon 
on  the  saline  plain,  where  the  effervescence  of  salt  re- 
sembles frozen  sand.     Lovely  is  the  pink-limbed  peach 
tree  after  the  dusty  sage-brush  which  assumes  the  neu- 
tral tint  of  the  wilderness,  where  there  is  no  color  save 
in  the  sky.     And  cheering  are  the  broad,  dusty  streets 
of  Zion  to  pilgrims  who  have  traversed  the  ocean-like 
steppes,  Lla7io  Estacado,^'\\QrQ  the  Indian  sets  up  stakes 
in  the  drifting  sand  to  guide  him  aright  through  this 
deserted  bed  of  some  prehistoric  sea. 

It  was  homelike,  too,  to  see  the  crowds  pouring  out 
of  the  tabernacle  in  thousands  of  a  Sunday  evening, 
when  one  had  been  familiar  with  the  Indians  draped  in 
bright-colored  blankets,  which  they  wear  as  gracefully 
as  a  Roman  might  wear  his  toga.  But  their  matted 
hair  and  greasy  faces  are  rather  repulsive  to  the  dainty 
Caucasian.     The  sleek,  fat  cows  behind  Brother  Brig- 

226 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

ham's  corrals  were  a  pleasanter,  if  less  romantic,  sight 
than  the  fleet  antelope  skipping  over  the  gray  savan- 
nahs. Even  the  low,  squat  houses  of  pre-Gentile  days, 
every  chimney  of  which  represented  a  separate  family, 
looked  fair  and  cozy  after  the  white  tents  and  camp- 
fires  of  the  wilderness.  And  how  restful  to  the  eye 
were  the  green  grass  and  the  golden  corn  when  one  had 
come  through  bald,  bare  canons,  or  over  the  Rockies, 
so  desolate  in  their  grandeur — some  hoary,  weird,  gro- 
tesque, framing  their  great  heads  in  the  sky;  others  cov- 
ered with  aspen, beech, and  pine;  their  tints  contrasting 
with  the  brown  and  gray  of  the  heavy  granite  boulder 
and  the  pale  brightness  of  the  milky  quartz! 

When  Brigham  led  his  followers  into  the  Happy 
Valley,  they  were,  indeed,  separated  from  the  whole 
world,  and  completely  at  the  mercy  of  this  despot. 
Gigantic  peaks  stood  as  sentinels  over  the  sacred  city. 
Tremendous  as  were  the  difficulties  of  getting  out, they 
were  purposely  exaggerated.  The  knowledge  that  every 
avenue  of  escape  was  closed  exerted  a  powerful  influ- 
ence in  forcing  them  to  abide  by  their  fate.  By  law  or 
otherwise,  there  was,  practically,  no  redress:  "Who 
entered  here  left  hope  behind."  Surrounded  by  bar- 
riers almost  impassible,  of  desert  and  mountain,  Utah, 
and  especially  the  holy  city,  formed  the  last  and  se- 
curest stronghold  of  the  Mormon  exodus.  L Etat  cest 
moi!  The  temporal  governor  and  spiritual  ruler, Young, 
an  irresponsible  despot,  was  prophet,  high  priest,  and 
anointed  king,  whose  counsellors  might  advise,  but  must 
not  presume  to  direct  him.     To  strengthen  the  hands 

327 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

of  the  Church  —  /.  e.,  himself — missionaries  who  would 
compass  sea  and  land  for  a  proselyte,  were  sent  to  the 
heathen — ?.r.,  every  one  not  a  "Saint."  Mormon  mem- 
bership is  recruited  from  all  religions  save  the  Catholic. 
Rank  and  file,  who  worked  under  the  cegis  of  the  Bee- 
hive, the  Mormon  escutcheon,  emblem  of  the  industry 
Young  pretended  to  deify,  were  mostly  ignorant  dupes. 
The  best  thing  this  "  Prophet,  Seer,  and  Revelator"  did 
was  to  preach  the  gospel  of  work.  So  far  as  he  could 
achieve  it,  the  men  and  women  of  the  Beehive  earned 
their  bread  in  the  sweat  of  their  brow,  "  No  drones  in 
this  hive,"  was  his  text  for  many  a  discourse.  "It  is  a 
fixed  law,"  said  he,  "  that  every  man,  with  few  excep- 
tions, is  intended  to  live  on  his  own  earnings.  No  man 
has  a  right  to  eat  his  daily  bread  without  producing  as 
much  in  the  scale  of  life  as  he  consumes,  and  that,  too, 
by  some  kind  of  honest  physical  labor."  His  disciples 
mostly  became  farmers,  or  laborers,  or  wrought  at  me- 
chanical trades,  or  entered  into  mercantile  business. 
The  richer  they  became,  the  more  they  enriched  him. 
When  he  purchased  property,  he  graciously  allowed 
them  to  pay  for  it,  but  held  it  in  his  own  name.  As 
trustee-in-trust,  all  moneys  of  the  Church  passed  through 
his  hands.  He  continued  to  add  house  to  house,  field 
to  field,  mine  to  mine,  and  to  increase  his  investments 
and  bank  deposits  till  he  became  a  millionaire  many 
times  over. 

From  the  first,  the  Latter-Day  Saints,  whether  east 
of  the  Missouri  or  in  the  "  Valley  of  Ephraim,"  were 
antagonistic  to  every  form   of  government  save  their 

228 


About  the   Utah    Saints 

own  miserable  caricature  of  a  theocracy.  The  cred- 
ulous Mormon  was  taught  that  his  church  would  over- 
throw the  government  at  Washington,  assume  control 
of  the  Republic,  and  finally  possess  the  earth.  This 
monstrous  ambition  created  a  civil  war  in  Missouri, 
and  excited  the  people  of  Illinois  to  drive  the  Saints 
by  force  of  arms  from  their  borders.  Hence,  the  re- 
treat to  Utah,  "  a  thousand  miles  from  everywhere." 
Here,  secure  from  all  interference  from  the  outside 
world,  the  arch-Mormon  gathered  in  disciples  who 
brought  him  the  mammon  of  iniquity,  and,  in  still 
larger  numbers,  those  who  carried  neither  purse  nor 
scrip.  The  chiefs  "counselled" — a  "  counsel  "  being 
the  strongest  kind  of  command — "the  Saints"  to  be 
ready  to  carry  fire  and  sword  to  the  very  gates  of  the 
capital.  However  wild  in  theory  and  impossible  in 
practise  their  designs  were,  the  leaders  were  ready  to 
sacrifice  the  rabble  for  their  achievement.  Though 
mostly  Americans  by  birth,  the  controlling  powers 
never  regarded  themselves  as  such,  but  as  citizens  of 
Zion.  Full  of  bombast  and  hypocrisy,  they  were 
chronic  rebels  to  the  flag  that  protected  them.  When 
the  great  Civil  War  broke  out,  no  Mormon  handled 
a  musket  on  either  side.  President  Young,  Czar  of  all 
the  Mormons,  spoke  the  sentiments  of  his  associates  and 
dupes  when  he  said:  "The  North  prays  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  South,  and  the  South  prays  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  North,  and  I  say  'Amen'  to  both  prayers." 
Often  did  he  point  a  moral  with  that  Titanic  strug- 
gle.    And  not  a  few  of  his  satellites  hoped  that   the 

229 


About  the  Utah   Saitds 

Mormon  Church,  whose  comparative  insignificance 
they  knew  not,  would  one  day  march  to  victory  over 
the  mutilated  remains  of  both  armies.  To  be  at  vari- 
ance with  the  government  seemed  essential  to  their 
status  as  Mormons. 

Brigham  Young,*  undoubtedly,  possessed  many  of 
the  qualities  of  a  great  ruler.  His  suave,  plausible  man- 
ners endeared  him  to  the  people,  who  certainly  cher- 
ished his  memory  more  than  that  of  any  other  leader. 
He  would  walk  about  among  the  laborers  on  the  road- 
side, descend  from  his  carriage  to  inquire  about  a  sick 
brother,  shake  hands  affectionately  with  some  small 
farmer,  and  effusively,  with  eyes  and  hands  lifted 
heavenward,  invoke  the  blessings  of  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob  on  the  admiring  bystanders.  We  have  never 
heard  a  Mormon  speak  against  Brother  Brigham. 
More  than  one  hapless  woman  who  spoke  with  loath- 
ing of  the  horrors  of  polygamy,  placed  him  above  the 
divine  law  :  "  He  can  do  what  he  pleases ;  whatever  he 
does  is  right."  Others  bear  the  wretchedness  of  their 
forlorn  lives  as  the  heaven-appointed  cross  destined  to 
win  an  eternal  crown.  Their  faith  in  Mormon  fanat- 
icism seems  unshaken,  and  they  accept  their  bitter  lot 

*  Brigham  Young  has  been  called  a  psychological  freak.  His 
parents  were  ordinary,  his  children  scarcely  average,  and  not  one 
of  his  ten  brothers  or  sisters  showed  any  talent  whatever.  He  was 
a  man  of  splendid  appearance;  the  carriage  of  his  massive  head 
was  majestic  ;  he  was  considerably  above  middle  height,  and  in  his 
costume  wore  combinations  which  would  suggest  the  ridiculous  on 
any  one  else.  But  we  have  never  heard  of  any  one  daring  to  laugh 
at  this  formidable  despot. 

230 


About  the  Utah   Sai)its 

with  sad  resignation.  But  since  the  incoming  of  the 
Gentiles  many  shake  off  the  degrading  yoke. 

From  the  first,  polygamy,  though  indignantly  re- 
pudiated by  the  leaders,  was  a  characteristic  of  this 
latest  phase  of  Protestantism.  The  founders  and 
higher  officials  — Smith,  Young,  Kimble,  Grant,  Tay- 
lor, Wells,  all  Americans  of  English  lineage  —  were, 
without  exception,  polygamists.  In  early  days  this 
was  carefully  concealed  from  the  outer  world ;  later, 
it  became  their  boast.  All  were  consummate  hypo- 
crites, ready,  when  the  so-called  good  of  the  church 
required,  to  assert  unblushingly  what  they  knew  to  be 
false.  Truth,  honor,  honesty,  were  unknown  qualities 
among  them. 

The  polygamous  feature  of  this  fanaticism  attracted 
much  attention  from  the  fact  of  its  bearing  so  heavily 
on  women.  Mormons  married  two  or  three  sisters  at 
once,  and  occasionally  a  mother  and  her  daughter,  and 
even  granddaughter.  Brigham  Young  married  the 
sisters  Clara  and  Lucy  Decker.  His  daughters,  Fanny 
and  Luna,  married  George  Thatcher;  Mary  and  Caro- 
line, Mark  Croxal;  Alice  and  Emily,  Hiram  Clawson. 
On  these  points  there  was  no  law  save  the  will  of  the 
Prophet.  And  what  God  had  joined  in  lawful  wed- 
lock—  or  not  joined,  as  in  case  of  unlawful  marriages 
—  he  was  willing  to  put  asunder  for  a  consideration  of 
ten  dollars,  the  ordinary  divorce  fee.  Money  made  in 
this  way  he  declared  he  gave  to  his  consorts  for  pin- 
money,  but  it  was  well  known  that  it  never  got  nearer 
to  those  poor  sultanas  than  his  own  pockets.     He  did, 

231 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

however,  allow  them  the  windfalls  of  his  blooming 
orchards,  by  which  they  made  a  pittance  in  a  region 
remarkable  for  its  fine  peaches  and  apples.  Save  in 
the  secret  archives  of  the  Endowment  House,  where 
the  occult  ordinances  of  Mormonism  took  place,  no 
record  of  marriages  was  kept.  Passing  over  the 
"wives"  of  earlier  years,  the  nineteen  women  who 
lived  under  the  roof  of  the  Prophet  and  ate  his  bread 
in  the  sixties  and  seventies,  derived  no  social  distinc- 
tion, even  in  the  holy  city,  from  being  espoused  to 
the  Protestant  Sultan.  Except  the  favorite,  usually  the 
lady  on  whom  his  High  Mightiness  had  bestowed  the 
latest  reversion  of  his  hand,  all  were  merely  servants 
without  wages  —  cooks,  housemaids,  care-takers,  laun- 
dresses, teachers  for  the  ever-increasing  progeny,  who 
did  the  work  and  kept  everything  clean  and  orderly 
about  the  premises.  Their  wants  were  frugally  sup- 
plied; necessaries,  but  no  luxuries,  were  seen  in  their 
tidy  quarters  at  the  Lion  House  or  the  Beehive.  In 
the  Beehive  most  of  the  consorts  and  their  children 
lived.  Seventeen  of  these  degraded  women  were 
Americans,  who  were  continually  boasting  of  their 
Anglo-Saxon  descent;  one  was  a  German,  and  one  an 
English  woman  who  proposed  for  the  Prophet,  offer- 
ing, like  Jacob,  conditions  reversed,  to  serve  seven 
years  for  him.  She  did  work  for  him  for  that  space, 
and  received  the  coveted  prize.  Their  son  was  greatly 
petted  by  Brigham,  who  used  to  call  him  "  My  Eng- 
lish boy."  The  favorite  of  the  moment  ruled  the 
capricious    tyrant    with    a    rod    of   iron.     No    "  plural 

232 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

wife"  ever  held  this  precarious  post  so  long  as  Amelia 
Folsom,  a  Massachusetts  woman,  on  whom  he  be- 
stowed the  seventeenth  nuptial  ring  he  distributed. 
Among  the  sights  of  Zion,  in  the  midst  of  a  spacious 
lawn,  is  the  elegant  mansion  he  built  her,  called  the 
Amelia  Palace.  It  perpetuates  the  memory  of  their 
unholy  connection  in  the  city  that  witnessed  their 
sin,  but,  unhappily,  not  their  repentance. 

II 

When  we  conjure  up  a  vision  of  Catholic  women  as 
we  remember  them  in  the  long  ago  —  maidens  with 
the  innocence  of  children,  matrons  with  the  modesty 
of  maids  —  we  have  sometimes  wondered  if  they  ever 
thanked  God  that  they  had  never  seen,  nor,  indeed, 
could  they  imagine,  the  awful  miseries  of  their  sister 
women  in  the  Mormon  valley  —  hac  lacryDiartun  valle 
—  which  nature  has  made  so  fair.  Looking  at  the 
hard,  disagreeable,  ugly  faces  of  the  Mormon  women 
who  met  us  at  every  turn  in  the  City  of  the  Blest,  we 
recalled  the  sweet,  patient,  holy  countenances  grouped 
about  us  in  childhood  —  the  matron  about  whose  line- 
aments lingered  the  graces  of  virginity,  and  the  maid 
through  whose  bright  eyes  looked  an  angelic  soul. 
Whence  the  difference,  yea,  the  contrast,  between 
woman  and  woman,  maiden  and  maiden?  Ah,  it  is  due 
to  faith  —  virtue.  The  Catholic  belongs  to  a  Church 
that  teaches  all  holiness.  In  the  Mormon  women  vir- 
tue is  in  abeyance,  if  not  annihilated  ;  vice  in  the  guise 

233 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

of  religion  usurps  its  place,  and  some  of  its  hideous- 
ness  shows  even  in  "the  human  face  divine." 

A  Catholic  friend  who  has  lived  many  years  in 
Utah  writes :  "  I  took  the  census  of  4,000  souls,  four- 
fifths  of  whom  were  Mormons.  I  found  two  married 
women  of  English  birth  whose  parents  were  Catholics. 
They  had  left  England  in  early  girlhood.  Both  were 
illiterate,  had  received  no  instruction  as  Catholics,  and 
were  Mormons,  not  from  any  belief  in  the  doctrines  of 
Joe  Smith  or  Brigham  Young,  but  on  account  of  the 
earthly  paradise  promised  them.  Another  woman  had 
been  baptized  a  Catholic,  she  did  not  know  where.  I 
asked  if  the  Mormons  were  good  to  her.  She  said 
'yes.'  I  asked  in  what  this  goodness  consisted.  'They 
let  me  live  there,'  she  replied,  pointing  to  a  mud  hovel 
on  the  roadside." 

God  be  praised !  Catholic  women  never  accepted 
the  "celestial  exaltation"  which  women  are  declared 
to  receive  by  becoming  the  "plural  wives"  of  Mormon 
elders.  The  Mormon  elders  and  most  of  their  wives 
continually  boast  of  their  Anglo-Saxon  lineage.  The 
Irish,  who  may  be  considered  the  representative  Eng- 
lish-speaking Catholics,  have  been  conspicuous  only  by 
their  absence.  Years  ago,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  who 
had  little  sympathy  with  the  Irish  race,  and  less  with 
the  Catholic  religion,  in  lecturing  on  his  "  Circuit  of 
the  Continent,"  gave  utterance  to  the  following  re- 
markable words  when  describing  his  sojourn  in  Salt 
Lake  City :  "  Be  it  said  to  the  credit  of  the  Irish  race, 
that  I  have  not  found  a  single  Irishman  or  woman  in 

234 


About  the   Utah    Saints 

the  whole  Mormon  system.  Whether  this  is  due  to  the 
teachings  of  the  great  Roman  religion, or  to  some  inherent 
virtue  in  the  people,  I  cannot  say,  but  such  is  the  fact." 

To  a  considerable  extent  the  Mormon  women  were 
"gathered  in"  from  the  lower  strata  of  womanhood  in 
non-Catholic  countries,  and  were  the  offscouring  of  all. 
But  women  of  education  (so-called),  of  wealth  and 
social  standing,  have  been  inveigled  into  this  mon- 
strous and  pernicious  superstition.  One  of  these,  who, 
unasked,  gave  the  writer  much  information  about  these 
peculiar  creatures,  said:  "  If  it  were  known  that  I  told 
you  all  this,  it  would  get  me  into  great  difficulty  with 
our  people."  They  were  captivated  by  the  rude  elo- 
quence of  bishops,  elders,  and  the  "  quorum  of  the 
seventies,"  who  preached,  in  words  of  striking  sound 
and  little  meaning,  the  glory  and  fulness  of  the  ever- 
lasting gospel,  the  gifts  and  graces  of  the  spirit,  sedu- 
lously concealing  the  doctrines  of  polygamy  and  blood 
atonement,  and  every  other  repulsive  feature  of  this 
crude  fanaticism. 

No  wonder  that  unspeakable  wretchedness  of  body 
and  mind  have  absorbed  from  female  faces  among  "the 
Saints"  all  beauty  and  comeliness,  and  wrought  in 
them  the  hard  look  that  unsanctified  suffering  produces. 
The  degraded  creatures  from  whom  womanly  dignity, 
sweet  refinement,  and  sustaining  self-respect  had  van- 
ished, and  in  whose  souls  the  discordant  elements  of 
malice,  hatred,  and  strife  had  made  their  abode,  were 
the  slaves,  rather  than  the  toys,  of  capricious  tyrants 
whose  boorishness  was  the  least  of  their  foibles. 

235 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

In  Salt  Lake  City,  and  throughout  Utah,  the  writer 
was  struck  with  the  preternatural  ugliness  of  the  women. 
Issuing  from  the  Tabernacle,  squatting  on  their  door- 
steps, or  lounging  about  the  gates  of  their  dwellings, 
one  could  note  the  hard,  wizened  features,  the  defiant, 
repulsive  expression.  Having  mentioned  this  all-per- 
vading absence  of  personal  comeliness  to  friends  who 
rather  doubted  that  it  existed  to  such  a  remarkable  ex- 
tent, and  remembering  that  tastes  differ,  we  sought 
other  evidence  as  to  the  personal  appearance  of  these 
people,  To  the  query :  "  How  do  you  find  Mormon 
women  as  to  looks?"  an  Irish  gentleman  who  has  lived 
many  years  in  Utah,  replied  :  "  Decidedly  ugly,  and 
this  ugliness  is  more  marked  throughout  the  Territory 
than  in  the  capital.  The  cast  of  features  is  more  than 
plain."  Domestic  unhappiness  and  social  degradation 
have  furrowed  the  features  and  drawn  hard  lines  about 
the  eyes  and  mouth,  making  the  faces  grim  and  repul- 
sive. We  inquired  of  Gentile  visitors  and  found  that 
they  were  impressed  as  we  were.  Indeed,  visitors  to 
the  Valley  of  the  Saints  have  been  all  but  unanimous 
on  this  subject.  Ann  Eliza  Webb,  a  Mormon  by  birth, 
and  a  so-called  wife  of  Brigham,  admits  the  ugliness  of 
the  women,  but  says :  "  They  are  pretty  enough  as 
children.  When  the  curse  of  polygamy  is  forced  upon 
them,  they  grow  hard,  or  die  in  their  struggles  to  be- 
come inured  to  this  unnatural  life." 

The  Mormons  have  attracted  attention  and  created 
excitement  out  of  all  proportion  to  their  numerical  in- 
significance.     In    Utah    they    are    far    below    200,0(X». 

236 


Aboil i  the  Utah   Saints 

Many  apostatize,  but  their  places  are  filled  by  disciples 
allured  by  Mormon  propagandists  in  all  parts  of  the 
globe.  The  fanatical  energy  of  the  governing  elders 
has  not  slackened.  They  have  publicly  renounced  po- 
lygamy, but  "  plural  wives  "  now  appear  as  nurses  or 
servants,  and  the  law  reaches  few  of  the  wily  trans- 
gressors. 

In  1850  President  Filmore  appointed  Brigham 
Young  governor;  in  1854  another  governor  was  sent 
out,  but  Brigham  would  not  be  replaced.  "  I  am,  and 
shall  be,  Governor  of  Utah,"  said  he,  "  and  no  power 
shall  remove  me  till  the  Almighty  says,  '  Brigham,  I 
don't  want  you  in  this  post  any  longer.'  "  He  kept  his 
word.  To  the  time  of  his  death,  1877,  he  broke  every 
power  sent  to  break  him,  and  was,  de  facto,  supreme 
ruler  to  the  last.  For  thirty-three  years  he  may 
be  said  to  have  nominated  every  ofificer  in  Utah. 
He  was  president  of  the  "  Saints,"  and  all  legislative, 
executive,  and  judicial  offices  were  in  his  gift.  In  no 
instance  did  the  people  vote,  save  as  "  counselled." 
Many  acts  of  the  legislature  were  passed  simply  to  con- 
vey valuable  property  to  Young,  at  once  the  grantee 
and  the  governor,  whose  approval  was  necessary  to  the 
validity  of  the  grant.  Nor  did  this  state  of  things  die 
with  the  terrible  high  priest.  As  late  as  1882  the 
Legislative  Assembly  consisted  of  thirty-six  members, 
all  Mormons.  They  met  to  do  the  bidding  of  their  chiefs, 
the  United  States  paying  their  mileage  and  per  diem 
salaries.  It  was  the  aim  of  the  leaders  to  form  a  separ- 
ate  independent    State,  an  empire  within  an  empire, 

237 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

destined  to  crush  all  other  governments  and  to  inherit 
the  earth.  They  ruled  Utah,  held  the  balance  of  power 
in  Idaho,  and  wielded  a  potent  influence  in  Arizona, 
Colorado,  Wyoming,  and  Nevada.  They  declared  them- 
selves, like  the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  aliens  in  the  land  that 
bore  them.  The  alienism  that  began  with  Joe  Smith 
over  sixty  years  ago,  has  descended  from  sire  to  son  into 
this  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Hence, 
Gentiles  have  contended  that  Mormons  should  be  de- 
nied the  privilege  of  voting  so  long  as  their  fealty  is  not 
given  to  the  Washington  government,  that  "  the  politi- 
cal fangs  of  Mormonism  should  be  extracted  "  by  the 
withdrawal  of  franchise.  In  public  the  "  Saints  "  affect 
the  deepest  reverence  for  the  laws.  But  their  works 
agree  not  with  their  words.  Instead  of  bringing  offend- 
ers to  justice,  they  screen  them  from  the  officers  of  the 
law,  and  when  refractory  citizens  are  tried  and  punished, 
they  pose  as  martyrs  rather  than  transgressors. 

Federal  officers  who  entered  the  territory  when 
Brigham  Young  was  king,  were  traduced  and  persecuted 
unless  they  were  as  wax  in  his  hands.  When,  in  1870, 
he  conferred  the  franchise  on  women,  he  was  hailed  by 
advanced  female  suffragists  as  a  liberal,  high-minded 
ruler.  But  this  made  elections  a  greater  farce  than 
ever.  Every  woman  voted  as  her  husband  dictated, 
and  no  man  voted  except  as  "counselled."  To  in- 
crease the  voters  so  as  to  entitle  Utah  to  be  admitted 
into  the  Union  as  a  State,  Mormon  leaders  resorted  to 
the  most  unscruplous  measures.  It  was  judicious  to 
provide  against  a  contingency  that  might  arise  should 

238 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

Mormon  and  Gentile  votes  result  in  a  tie,  were  men  the 
only  voters.  Such  a  calamity  could  now  be  easily 
averted.  The  poor  Gentile  went  to  the  polls  with  one 
or,  at  most,  two  votes.  The  Mormon  drove  up  tri- 
umphantly with  wagons  full  of  wives  and  children, 
every  one,  even  the  babe  in  arms,  having  a  vote  to 
deposit.  Suffrage  became  the  veriest  sham.  One  of 
Brigham's  consorts  says  that  when  ordered  to  vote  she 
begged  to  be  excused,  as  she  knew  nothing  of  the  can- 
didates; but  her  lord  sternly  bade  her  go  to  the 
polls,  naming  his  coachman  as  her  political  instructor. 
She  never  learned  the  name  of  the  person  for  whom 
she  voted,  but  suspected  it  was  that  "calamity  of  his 
time,"  George  Q.  Cannon,  an  Englishman,  high  in 
ofifice,  who  more  than  once  had  been  a  convicted 
criminal.  Swedes  and  Norwegians  who  could  not  speak 
a  word  of  English  voted  according  to  the  "  counsel "  of 
the  elders,  without  the  formality  of  naturalization. 
Dead  "Saints"  voted  by  the  proxy  of  the  living. 
More  than  we  commonly  understand  by  "the  quick 
and  the  dead  "  were  represented  on  petitions  sent  to 
Congress.  Men  were  known  to  "  christen  "  their  beasts 
of  burden,  give  them  names  and  surnames,  and  make 
them  sign  or  vote  —  by  proxy. 

The  Prophet  was  a  declared  enemy  to  education, 
but  when  the  establishment  of  schools  became  com- 
pulsory, he  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  The  school  sys- 
tem became,  practically,  a  scheme  to  erect  Mormon 
meeting-houses  at  public  expense.  In  these  were  taught 
all  the  abominations  of  the  sect.    And  as  Catholics  are 

239 


About  the  Utali   Saii/ts 

taxed  for  schools  they  cannot  conscientiously  use,  so 
the  Gentiles  in  Utah  were  forced  to  support  the  Mor- 
mon system,  while  maintaining  separate  schools  for  their 
own  children.  Our  modern  Mahomet  often  declared 
that  he  would  never  give  a  dollar  to  educate  another 
man's  child,  that  education  is  a  foe  to  labor,  and  puts 
children  in  danger  of  becoming  "  loafers  and  horse- 
thieves";  perils  to  which  he  exposed  his  own  progeny, 
when  he  sent  some  of  them  to  Gentile  colleges.  But, 
he  was  above  all  law.  His  descendants  used  to  boast 
of  their  royal  lineage,  and  take  liberties  on  account  of 
it.  There  was  an  absurd  story,  devoutly  believed  in 
the  New  Jerusalem,  of  a  traveling  scion  of  the  House 
of  Young,  who  refused  to  give  the  pas,  in  Hyde  Park, 
to  a  son  of  Queen  Victoria ;  and  the  genuine  princes 
who  visited  Utah  were  regarded  as  offshoots  of  the 
effete  royalties  of  Europe,  and  infinitely  inferior  to  the 
vigorous  sons  of  Brigham,  which,  from  a  physical  stand- 
point, they  probably  were. 

As  will  be  readily  conjectured,  nothing  was  done  to 
keep  the  children  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  "Saints" 
clean  of  heart.  How  could  purity  be  thought  of  amid 
such  base  environments?  But  to  attach  them  to  the 
Mormon  church  and  polity,  every  effort  was  used,  and 
in  the  most  effective  manner.  Many  immeasurably 
higher  in  the  scale  of  morality  might  take  lessons  from 
the  value  "the  Saints"  set  on  early  impressions  and 
associations.  It  was  well  said  :  "  Give  me  the  child  for 
the  first  seven  years  and  do  as  you  will  with  him  after- 
wards."    The    future    of    Mormon    children    is    over- 

240 


Aboiit  the  Utah   Saints 

shadowed  by  early  associations  to  a  greater  extent 
than  any  one  unacquainted  with  their  peculiar  ways 
could  imagine.  They  are  indoctrinated  with  Mormon 
tenets,  taught  to  exalt  their  own  and  despise  every 
other  "  persuasion."  Intercourse  with  Gentiles  was  for- 
bidden as  contamination. 

Some  one  said  that  if  a  man  were  permitted  to  make 
the  ballads  of  a  nation,  he  need  not  care  who  made  its 
laws.  The  ballads  of  Utah  engraved  in  the  tender 
hearts  of  children  the  pernicious  principles  of  a  dis- 
graceful sect.  Doggerel,  dignified  by  the  name  of 
poetry,  striking  couplets,  sharp  epigrams,  were  com- 
mitted to  memory,  or  sung  from  the  church  hymn 
books,  by  the  camp-fires,  on  plains  glittering  with  salt 
crystals,  within  the  bare  walls  of  the  huge,  ugly  taber- 
nacle, on  the  school-bench  by  day,  and  under  the  roof- 
tree  at  night.  The  Deity  was  thanked  for  having 
mercifully  brought  the  choristers  into  the  bosom  of  the 
Church  of  the  Latter-Day  Saints,  and  taught  them  a 
faith,  whereby  they  were  to  be  savingly  converted. 
Some  were  sung  to  bold  defiant  airs,  with  staccato 
movement ;  some  to  music,  appealing  and  sonorous ; 
some  to  easy  negro  melodies.  Brigham's  favorite 
air  was  "Gentle  Annie."  The  singers  were  "the 
chosen  few,"  whose  mission  was  to  build  up  the  waste 
places  of  Zion,  and  make  the  desert  blossom  like 
the  rose.  They  sang  the  glories  of  the  promised 
land,  the  city  of  refuge,  where  "the  Saints"  were 
beyond  the  reach  of  their  enemies,  with  none  to  molest 
them. 

i6  241 


About  the   rtah    Saints 

Catholics  who  were  formerly  Mormons,  have  often 
expatiated  on  the  extreme  difficulty  of  shaking  off 
their  early  impressions.  Nor  could  they  readily  forget 
the  coarse  rhymes  in  which  their  earlier  creed  was  en- 
shrined. Snatches  of  these  were  often  unconsciously 
warbled,  even  by  some  who  had  learned  the  glorious 
"  Porta  manes  et  stella  maris  "  of  the  Universal  Church. 

Some  effusions  sung  in  the  tabernacle  could  not  be 
quoted  here.  Absurd,  utterly  worthless,  beneath  crit- 
icism, as  most  of  them  are,  they  always  crystallize  Mor- 
mon tenets.  If  the  more  intelligent  Mormon  could 
despise  the  angry  denunciations  of  cunning  elders,  and 
rid  himself  of  early  associations,  the  greatest  obstacles 
to  his  conversion  would  be  removed.  But  under  a  sys- 
tem of  utter  subjection  to  a  despot,  freedom  was 
annihilated.  The  people,  irreverently  styled  in  non- 
Catholic  phraseology  "  the  masses,"  were  as  "  dumb, 
driven  cattle,"  and  rarely  had  anyone  the  spirit  to  "be 
a  hero  in  the  strife."  "  To  resist  was  fatal,  and  it  was 
impossible  to  fly."  A  recalcitrant  member  who,  after 
the  first  or  second  admonition,  refused  to  submit  to  the 
great  Moslem,  soon  "disappeared,"  and  his  place  knew 
him  no  more. 

Ill 

In  August,  1866,  Father  Kelly,  of  Grass  Valley, 
was  made  pastor  of  Salt  Lake  City  by  Right  Rev. 
Eugene  O'Connell,  to  whom  the  Holy  See  confided 
Utah  Territory  in  1865.  Father  Kelly  bought  the 
ground  on  which  the  little  cathedral  now  stands.     In 

242 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

1868  a  Catholic  bishop  visited  Zion  for  the  first  time, 
and  said  Mass  at  the  residence  of  Judge  Marshall, 
whose  guest  he  remained  for  a  fortnight.  Among  the 
names  of  the  first  Catholics  are  O'Reilly,  Barron, 
Byrne,  Kennelly,  Vaughan,  Dahler,  and  Simpkins. 

Father  Foley  succeeded  Father  Kelly,  and  early  in 
1 871  opened  a  subscription  list  for  the  erection  of  a 
church.  Though  few,  and  mostly  poor.  Catholics  were 
so  generous  that  the  church  was  finished  in  a  few 
months,  and  dedicated  to  St.  Mary  Magdalen,  Novem- 
ber 26,  1871.  In  1873  Rev.  Lawrence  Scanlan  devoted 
his  energies  to  the  spread  of  the  true  faith  in  Salt 
Lake  Valley;  in  1887  he  became  Vicar  Apostolic,  and 
later  bishop  of  the  holy  city.  Under  the  able  admin- 
istration of  this  zealous  prelate  religion  has  made  rapid 
strides.  The  church  in  which  the  sacred  mysteries 
have  been  celebrated  for  a  score  of  years  is  now  too 
small  for  the  constantly-increasing  congregation,  and 
zealous  Catholics  hope  that  the  spires  of  a  splendid 
cathedral  will  soon  overlook  this  New  Jerusalem. 

More  quickly  than  any  other  means  would  the 
spread  of  Catholic  doctrine  destroy  this  new  Islamism, 
and  hence  Young  would  never  have  allowed  the  Church 
to  gain  a  foothold  had  he  been  able  to  keep  it  out. 
The  establishing  of  soldiers,  many  of  whom  were  Irish 
Catholics,  at  Fort  Douglas,  on  a  plateau  above  the 
city,  and  the  immense  number  of  miners,  smelters, 
stokers,  of  the  same  religion  and  nationality,  that 
flocked  to  Zion  after  the  opening  of  the  railroads, 
in  1869,  made  it  impossible    for   him  to  keep  it  out, 

243 


Abotit  the  Utah   Saints 

Young  and  other  Mormon  lights  showed  much  esteem 
for  Catholics.  A  high  official  said  to  the  writer:  "We 
all  like  the  Catholics.  They  do  not  annoy  or  persecute 
us;  they  treat  us  like  gentlemen."  If  Catholics  spoke 
of  the  peculiar  institution,  they  felt  that  it  is  only 
Catholics  who  could  do  so  with  authority.  For  they 
saw  little  difference  between  their  own  system  and  the 
progressive  polygamy  practised  wherever  divorce  holds 
sway.  Some  of  Young's  descendants  have  renounced 
polygamy,  and  a  few  have  become  Catholics.  A  grand- 
son of  his  was  elected  city  marshal  of  Zion  on  the  Lib- 
eral ticket.  During  the  campaign  he  spoke  of  his 
people  as  misled  and  benighted,  and  never  alluded  to 
his  royal  pedigree.  Several  intelligent  Mormons  say 
that  it  is  useless  to  uphold  their  doctrines  against  the 
sea  of  enlightenment  with  which  emigration  is  flooding 
Utah,  which  has  grown  quite  commonplace,  and  is  no 
longer  the  Western  Wonderland.  Graded  streets, 
castle-like  edifices,  gas,  electric  lights,  and  other  mod- 
ern improvements  brought  in  by  the  Gentiles  —  who 
quickly  emptied  the  exchequer,  and  were  even  so 
fashionable  as  to  go  in  debt  —  have  quite  changed  the 
aspect  of  the  rural  village,  with  dusty  streets,  adobe  or 
frame  cottages,  erhbowering  shrubbery,  and  little  run- 
nels like  those  of  Berne  —  the  holy  city  of  Brigham's 
day.  In  a  Christian  aspect,  things  are  brighter  to-day 
than  they  have  yet  been  in  the  stronghold  of  the 
"  Saints."  It  has  been  proclaimed,  and  in  no  uncertain 
tones,  that  the  Mormons  must  conform  to  the  law  or 
cease   to   exist   as  a  body.     This   would,  at    one   fell 

244 


Ahold  I  he   Ctah    Saints 

swoop,  destroy  the  most  debasing  feature — polygamy. 
Loyal  subjects  will  not  stand  on  the  same  plane  with 
fanatics  who  assume  to  have  a  mission  to  uproot  every 
government.  The  Royal  Brigham  made  them  slaves; 
the  Catholic  Church  shows  them  the  blessed  "  freedom 
wherewith  Christ  has  made  us  free."  The  Gentiles 
now  outnumber  the  Mormons,  and  recent  victories 
show  that  Utah  is  at  last  a  fit  abode  for  the  brave  and 
the  free.  The  decision  of  Judge  Anderson,  in  refusing 
to  admit  to  citizenship  men  bound  by  the  horrible 
oaths  of  the  Endowment  House,  embodied  an  impar- 
tial epitome  of  Mormon  subterfuge  and  treachery. 
But  this  fanaticism  dies  hard ;  it  has  not  only  nine,  but 
nine  hundred  lives. 

The  incoming  of  non-Mormons  has  not  done  all 
that  optimists  expected ;  nevertheless,  its  effects  are 
felt.  Even  fashion  has  contributed  to  wound  this 
moral  cancer  in  the  breast  of  the  nation.  It  costs 
money  to  dress  fashionably,  and  "plural  wives"  are  not 
always  content  to  be  servants  without  wages.  Even  in 
the  Valley  of  the  Blest,  women  will  assert  themselves, 
and  "Saints"  copy  style  from  their  Gentile  sisters. 
The  cotton  gowns  and  sun-bonnets  of  early  days,  and 
the  hideous  "  Deseret  Costume  "  of  lin^ey  and  antelope- 
hide,  designed  by  the  Prophet  for  the  women  of  the 
Beehive,  could  no  more  be  revived  to-day  than  could 
the  laws  and  usages  of  the  Saxon  Heptarchy. 

A  great  work  has  been  begun  in  Utah  by  Catholic 
agencies.  Ecclesiastics,  with  their  helpers,  in  exempli- 
fying the    purity  and  sanctity  of    Catholic  teachings 

■245 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

before  men  steeped  in  every  abomination,  have  caused 
many  a  sinner  to  say,  as  did  St.  Augustine,  when  he 
considered  the  virtues  of  the  genuine  Saints:  "Cannot 
I  do  what  these  have  done?"  When  Mormons  enter 
the  Church,  their  allegiance  is  transferred  from  the 
Sultan  of  Zion  to  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  they  cannot  be  good  Catholics  without  being  good 
citizens. 

Suffrage,  the  acknowledged  palladium  of  the  free- 
man's liberty,  is  free,  and  Gentiles  have  been  voted 
into  office  in  Utah.  The  law,  sustained  by  a  healthy 
pubHc  opinion,  is  doing  away  with  the  more  loathsome 
features  of  this  abhorred  system.  But  among  the  de- 
termining causes  which  will  destroy  this  moral  leprosy, 
grafted  by  sensual,  avaricious  men  on  a  false  religion, 
the  most  powerful  is  the  spread  of  Catholic  principles. 
Where  woman  was  most  degraded,  woman  must  reign 
a  queen  —  the  Woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  the  moon 
under  her  feet,  and  the  stars  of  heaven  for  her  diadem. 
Mary,  the  purest  of  Virgins,  will  sanctify  the  fertile 
vales  and  blooming  gardens  of  Utah.  The  great  Mother 
of  Mercy  will  look  lovingly  on  these  poor  children  of 
fanaticism,  and  her  glance  creates  purity. 

In  1870  Brigham  Young  invited  the  Sisters  of 
Mercy  to  his  city,  and  when  these  Sisters  visited  him 
he  showed  them  every  courtesy.  He  used  to  say  that 
he  had  never  met  his  superior,  and  there  was  no  one  on 
earth  to  whom  he  would  raise  his  hat.  He  refused  this 
courtesy  to  royalties  visiting  his  capital.  "The  master 
should  hang  his  hat  on  the  peg  the  Almighty  made  for 

246 


About  tlic   I'tali    Saints 

it — his  head,  of  course,"  said  Bishop  Kimball,  one  of 
his  sycophantic  admirers.  But  he  did  dofT  his  hat  to 
the  Sisters,  gave  them,  unasked,  twenty  dollars  for 
their  charities,  and  showed  them  to  their  carriage  with 
extreme  politeness.  He  invited  other  Sisters  to  come 
to  him  whenever  they  needed  spiritual  advice  and  direc- 
tion! In  1875,  when  Sisters  came  to  stay.  Mormon 
children  went  to  them  in  great  crowds,  but  were  soon 
"counselled"  to  leave,  the  Mormon  oligarchy  being 
convinced  that  children  educated  in  a  convent  could 
never  become  good  Mormons. 

Brigham  died  August  29,  1877,  being  as  old  as  the 
century.  One  of  his  daughters  said  his  last  words 
were,  "Joseph!  Joseph!"  His  disciples  understood 
that  he  called  on  Joe  Smith,  who  had  led  him  into 
Mormonism,  either  in  reverence  or  in  reproach.  Some 
Catholics,  to  whom  he  had  showed  kindness,  hoped 
against  hope  that  he  was  calling  on  St.  Joseph! 

Like  Joe  Smith,  he  was  a  persistent  violator  of  the 
ten  commandments.  If  his  hand  did  no  murder,  mur- 
ders were  done  at  his  instigation  by  a  secret  society 
sworn  to  do  his  will,  the  Danites,  Avenging  Angels,  or 
Destroying  Angels.  A  profound  hypocrite,  an  able 
politician,  as  leader  of  the  Saints  for  thirty-three  years, 
he  showed  much  executive  ability.  Many  of  his  chil- 
dren were  girls  and  preceded  him  to  the  tomb.  In 
early  times  he  would  not  allow  his  disciples  medical 
aid,  but  undertook  to  cure  the  sick  by  the  laying  on  of 
hands.  When  ill  himself,  however,  he  always  had  as 
many  physicians  as  could  be  got.     He  left   nineteen 

247 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

widows  and  some  fifty  children.  His  millions  were 
divided  among  his  families.  No  restitution  was  made 
to  those  whom  he  had  robbed  or  cheated,  and,  as  far  as 
we  could  ascertain  on  the  spot,  he  died  as  he  had  lived. 
His  grave,  in  a  large  green  near  his  old  dwelling,  behind 
the  Eagle  Gate,  is  one  of  the  sights  of  Zion.  Several 
of  his  consorts  are  buried  near  him,  an  honor  which 
will  be  accorded  to  any  among  the  rest  who  may  die 
without  contracting  another  marriage.* 

Brigham  Young  told  the  Sisters  of  Mercy  who  vis- 
ited the  holy  city  in  the  zenith  of  his  power  and  fame, 
that  he  had  heartily  wished  and  earnestly  tried  to  in- 
duce an  Irish  colony  to  join  the  Saints  in  Utah;  and 
he  boasted  that  whatever  he  set  his  heart  on  he  ac- 
complished. An  Irish  colony  came,  but  not  in  the 
guise  for  which  he  had  hoped.  The  bishop  and  most 
of  the  clergy  and  religious  are  of  that  nationality  —  the 
zealous  clergy,  who  have  erected  schools,  churches,  and 
hospitals,  and  the  dark-robed  daughters  of  the  faith, 
who  gather  in  the  little  ones  of  Christ,  are  as  the  light- 
ning-rods of  Utah  to  turn  the  divine  vengeance  from 

*Both  as  a  prophet,  and  as  a  Thaumaturgus,  the  enterprising 
Brigham  was  very  unfortunate.  But  the  credulity  of  the  Salt 
Lakers  was  inexhaustible.  When  he  said,  "Do  you  believe  that 
I  know  what  is  coming.?  That  I  can  work  this  miracle?"  The 
answer  was  an  enthusiastic  "Yes."  Once,  Joe  Smith  said  he 
would  walk  dry-shod  over  a  river;  but  he  paused  on  the  brink, 
and  asked  his  followers,  "  Do  you  believe  I  can  do  what  I  say.?  " 
They  replied  in  the  affirmative.  "  Well,  then,"  said  he,  "  that  is 
the  same  as  if  I  had  done  it !  "  an  answer  which  did  not  shake  the 
implicit  faith  of  the  advanced  or  the  neophytes  in  the  founder  of 
Mormonism. 

248 


About  the  Utah   Saints 

her  people.  These  are  chief  among  the  causes  which 
will  determine  the  gradual,  if  not  rapid,  overthrow  of 
this  latest  development  of  the  Reformation.  Disciples 
will  be  attracted  to  the  true  faith  by  seeing  in  the  chil- 
dren  of  the  Church  illustrations  of  the  sanctity  which 
Mary  fosters  in  those  who  love  her.  God,  himself,  by 
His  omnipotent  grace,  will  work,  sweetly  and  peaceably, 
this  "change  of  the  right  hand  of  the  Most  High." 
The  deluded  victims  of  a  vicious  system  will  become 
"  the  clean  of  heart,"  destined  to  see  God,  and  pro- 
nounced "  blessed "  by  the  mouth  of  the  Word  Incar- 
nate. "  O,  how  beautiful  is  the  chaste  generation  in 
glory  ;  the  memory  thereof  is  immortal." 


249 


A   GLANCE   AT   THE   LATTER-DAY 

SAINTS  (?)* 

I 

[ANY  years  ago  I  saw,  in  Dublin,  in  an  ob- 
scure alley  not  far  from  Sackville(now  O'Con- 
nell)  street;  a  queer  looking  edifice  on  the 
door  of  which  was  painted :  Church  of  THE  Latter- 
Day  Saints.  Though  entirely  ignorant  of  everything 
concerning  these  recently  sanctified  people,  it  struck  me 
as  a  great  piece  of  boldness  that  their  sect  should  have 
".a  smoke  of  its  own  "  in   the  fair  metropolis  of  my 

*The  distinguished  writer  of  this  paper  ought  to  have  put 
forward  more  plainly  the  fact  that  she  has  been  in  Utah  and  has 
seen  what  she  describes.  Some  circumstances  mentioned  in  her 
private  letter  might  have  usefully  been  embodied  in  the  article. 
"  It  seems  I  am  the  only  Catholic  that  has  ever  touched  the  sub- 
ject, and  I  am,  perhaps,  inordinately  proud  that  there  are  no  Irish 
among  these  miserables.  These  shocking  people  interest  me 
greatly.  Please  join  me  in  praying  for  their  conversion.  The 
Bishop,  Dr.  Laurence  Scanlan,  is  a  Tipperary  man ;  the  priests, 
nuns,  teachers,  miners,  smelters,  etc.,  are  mostly  Irish.  Polygamy 
—  if  it  can  be  proved,  which  is  difficult  —  is  now  punished  by  im- 
prisonment. So,  as  a  friend  writes  to  me,  '  the  car  of  progress 
will  now  rattle  over  the  rocks  of  Utah.'  "  Another  part  of  this 
letter  speaks  of  some  Catholics  in  Mexico.  "  Nearly  all  are  Irish, 
strange  to  say:  for  Irish  immigration  has  not  turned  south  as 
much  as  we  would  like."  So  the  Irish  Nun  has  even  traveled  far- 
ther than  the  Irish  Emigrant. 

"  Qiiie  regio  in  terris  nostri   non  plena  laboris.?" 
250 


A   GIiDicc   at  tJic    Latter- Jhiy   Saints 

country.  1  knew  there  had  been  no  Irish  heresiarch, 
and  that  consequently  the  "Saints"  must  have  been 
established  and  propagated  by  foreigners.  The  name 
was  a  good  one.  It  was  cleverly  chosen  —  a  taking 
name,  in  fact.  Persons  shaky  in  other  forms  of  Protes- 
tantism ought  to  be  able  to  find  a  secure  haven  among 
"Saints,"  a  refuge  from  the  unrest  and  instability  which 
periodically  crop  out  in  the  crews  and  passengers  of 
every  barque  not  moored  to  the  Rock  of  Peter.  And 
what  more  could  seekers  after  higher  things  desire 
than  to  be  admitted  among  the  "  Saints,"  former  and 
latter? 

The  period  when  the  sign  of  a  new  religion  offended 
my  Catholic  instinct  was,  though  I  knew  it  not,  the 
golden  age  of  the  Latter-Day  Saints.  They  were  scarcely 
settled  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  a 
thousand  miles  from  civilization,  or,  as  they  themselves 
said,  "  a  thousand  miles  from  everywhere."  Their  high 
priest,  Brigham  Young,  was  Governor  of  the  Territory 
of  Utah,  whose  authority,  supreme  and  absolute  in 
spiritual  and  temporal  things,  it  was  hardly  less  than 
death  to  q^uestion.  No  railroads,  no  telegraph,  no  sol- 
diers, disturbed  the  solitude  of  the  holy  city.  Under 
the  guidance  of  Young,  the  Mormons  were  making  the 
desert  blossom  like  the  rose.  They,  an  insignificant 
handful  of  ignorant  creatures,  were  taught  to  regard 
the  United  States  of  America  as  a  poor,  mean  power, 
which  they  could  "whip"  any  day  they  felt  inclined  to 
make  the  exertion.  It  was  their  intention  utterly  to 
rout  that  heathen  confederation,  and  they  were  often 

251 


A   Glance  at  the   Latter-Dav  Saints 

told  in  Sunday  harangues  that  the  heads  of  the  same 

would  soon  be  seen  begging  their  bread  at  the  gates  of 

Zion. 

II 

Brigham  Young,  who  for  over  thirty  years  wore 
the  triple  crown  of  king,  priest,  and  prophet  in  the 
new  Zion,  the  headquarters,  the  Rome  of  the  Mor- 
mons, was  born  in  New  England  in  i8oi.  A  glazier 
by  trade,  he  was  a  Methodist  and  a  Baptist  by  turns 
till  1832,  when  he  embraced  Mormonism.  His  per- 
sonal magnetism  and  keen  practical  sense  were  of  im- 
mense use  to  Joseph  Smith,  founder  of  Mormonism, 
who  made  him  one  of  the  newly-organized  quorum  of 
the  Twelve  Apostles  in  1834.  Brigham  now  began 
"to  preach  in  tongues  to  the  Saints,"  and  though 
neither  saints  nor  sinners  understood  him,  the  manner 
in  which  he  transacted  all  business  committed  to  him 
proved  his  superiority,  and  his  promotion  to  the  higher 
grades  was  rapid.  In  1840  he  preached  the  new  gos- 
pel in  England,  He  would  compass  sea  and  land  to 
make  a  proselyte,  and  success  rewarded  his  exertions. 
He  often  afterwards  spoke  of  the  "  gullibility  "  of  the 
English.  Although  not  very  clear  as  to  what  he  be- 
lieved himself,  he  was  able  to  give  them  satisfying 
reasons  for  the  faith  they  understood  to  be  in  him,  and 
many  left  all  that  was  dear  to  them  to  follow  his  lead. 

Though  entirely  uneducated  — he  spent  but  thir- 
teen days  of  his  life  in  school  —  intercourse  with  the 
world  had  polished  his  manners,  which  could  be  very 
pleasing  when  he  wished.      His  personality  was  not  to 

252 


A  Glance  at  the  Latter-Day  Saints 

be  despised.  A  rather  handsome,  though  sinister-look- 
ing face,  and  a  tall  commanding  figure,  attracted  his 
audience  before  he  opened  his  mouth  to  utter  the  un- 
known sounds  which  were  understood  to  be  the  gift  of 
tongues.  When  he  spoke  "American,"  his  "inspira- 
tion "  showed  to  better  advantage,  and  he  seldom  failed 
to  "  bring  many  to  the  truth,"  as  he  pretended  to  un- 
derstand it. 

Fraud,  dishonesty,  and  worse  crimes  distinguished 
the  Saints  everywhere,  and  they  were  driven  out  of 
Ohio,  Illinois,  and  Missouri,  places  they  had  "  opened 
to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel."  Joseph  Smith  was 
shot,  and  the  next  in  rank,  Sidney  Rigdon,  assumed 
his  ofifice.  Brigham  soon  removed  Sidney's  candlestick, 
denounced  his  revelations  as  from  the  devil,  cut  ofT 
himself  and  his  followers,  cursed  him,  and  finally  "  de- 
livered him  over  to  Satan  to  be  buffeted  for  a  thousand 
years."  Even  his  opponents  admired  his  stern  intre- 
pidity. He  was  elected  President  by  an  overwhelming 
majority.  The  minority  he  at  once  cut  off,  root  and 
branch.  Everything  flourished,  directed  by  his  strong 
will,  and  the  improving  status  of  the  saints  soon  showed 
that  there  was  an  able  and  firm  hand  at  the  helm. 

Brigham  determined  to  found  an  empire  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  then  Mexican  Territory,  and  though 
nothing  could  be  more  difficult  than  to  bring  his  disci- 
ples to  this,  he  accomplished  it.  Many  who  crossed 
the  Mississippi  in  the  hope  of  one  day  "  worshiping 
under  their  own  vine  and  fig  tree,  where  none  should 
make  them  afraid,"  won  only  nameless  graves  in  the 

253 


A   Glance  at  the  Latter-Day  Saints 

great  American  desert.  But  he  administered  the  affairs 
of  the  survivors  with  skill  and  energy,  and  bent  them 
all  to  his  designs  by  his  dogged  pertinacity  and  resist- 
less influence.  He  made  himself  feared,  loved,  and 
venerated  by  the  people  whom  he  cajoled,  fed,  scolded, 
and  praised;  but,  above  all,  they  learned  to  dread  his 
iron  hand.  When  the  crops  failed  and  famine  stared 
them  in  the  face,  he  told  them  they  were  cursed  for 
their  unfaithfulness ;  but  he  found  them  food. 

Brigham  was  invariably  courteous  to  strangers,  and 
quite  willing  to  gratify  the  curiosity  of  which  he  was 
the  object,  so  long  as  it  was  respectful.  When  gentle- 
men of  the  press  visited  his  city,  he  showered  atten- 
tions upon  them.  They  were  at  once  taken  hold  of  by 
his  sycophants,  and  shown  the  bright  side  of  the 
loathsome  system  of  which  he  was  the  head.  Though 
himself  illiterate,  he  showed  the  highest  appreciation 
of  the  literary  personages  who  visited  his  capital,  and 
was  obsequiously  polite  to  them.  Hence,  the  glowing 
accounts  that  often  appeared  of  a  rather  insignificant 
region.  Writers  were  surrounded  by  Mormon  officials 
and  never  allowed  to  see  for  themselves.  They  "wrote 
up"  the  holy  city  rather  from  a  Mormon  standpoint 
than  from  their  own  unbiased  researches.  The  Mor- 
mons were  prohibited  under  the  gravest  penalties  from 
taking  the  Gentiles  into  their  confidence  on  any  subject 
whatever. 

HI 

In  the  Lion  House  and  the  Beehive  House,  two 
handsome  residences  connected  by  a  range  of  business 

254 


A    Glance  at  the   Latter- Day   Saints 

offices,  lived  and  worked  the  redoubtable  Governor 
Young.  The  former  was  devoted  chiefly  to  his  nine- 
teen consorts  and  their  numerous  children  ;  the  latter 
might  be  called  his  official  residence.  The  women  de- 
rived no  social  prominence  from  being  the  so-called 
wives  of  the  great  man.  They  all  dined  at  his  table  in 
the  Lion  House,  each  mother  being  surrounded  by  her 
own  progeny,  while  Brigham  and  his  latest  favorite  oc- 
cupied a  separate  table  at  the  head  of  the  dining  room. 
Neither  were  they  allowed  to  live  in  idleness ;  each  had 
her  appointed  tasks,  and  all  were  servants  without 
wages.  Save  one  German  and  one  or  two  English- 
women, the  legal  wife  and  the  "  plural  wives  "  were  all 
natives  of  America,  several  being  of  New  England. 
These  unfortunate  women  were  scarcely  ever  mentioned 
in  Utah.  Their  wants  were  supplied  with  great  frugal- 
ity. Though  Brigham  soon  became  one  of  the  wealth- 
iest men  in  the  world,  having  a  "  faculty"  for  turning 
the  most  unlikely  things  into  gold,  he  was  close-fisted 
and  even  stingy  to  the  last.  There  was  rarely  a  serv- 
ant on  his  premises.  His  consorts  and  daughters  did 
the  menial  work  of  his  extensive  household,  while  his 
sons-in-law  and  sons  were  expected  to  busy  themselves 
in  farming,  herding,  branding  cattle,  and  mechanical 
work.  The  versatile  "  seer,  prophet,  and  revelator " 
held  the  makings  of  his  wives'  gowns,  and  measured 
them  out  very  sparingly.  In  early  days  sun-bonnets 
and  cotton  dresses  were  their  uniform,  and  the  Czar  of 
all  the  Mormons  signalized  himself  by  devising  a  still 
uglier  garb  —  a  high  hat  with  a  narrow  brim,  a  shapeless 

255 


A  Glance  at  the  Latter-Day  Saints 

sacque  of  antelope  skin,  and  a  short,  tight  skirt  of 
Hnsey.  This,  the  famous  "  Deseret  Costume,"  he  made 
all  the  women  "  Saints  "  wear,  but  even  his  power  was 
not  able  to  perpetuate  so  hideous  a  toilette,  and  after  a 
few  seasons  it  gradually  dropped  out,  and  only  his 
senior  spiritual  bride,  Eliza  Snow,  who  gloried  in  hav- 
ing been  the  first  polygamous  wife  of  Joe  Smith,  ap- 
peared in  the  Deseret  Costume. 

Considering  that  Brigham  was  always  a  de  facto 
king  in  Salt  Lake  City,  and  had  even  been  anointed 
king,  it  is  a  little  singular  that  his  consorts  had  no  so- 
cial standing,  but  remained  cooks,  housekeepers,  seam- 
stresses, to  the  end,  with  little  variety  save  from  the 
drudgery  of  the  kitchen  to  that  of  the  laundry.  Vice 
spread  through  all  the  ramifications  of  this  fanaticism, 
but  the  worst  of  its  degradations  were  imposed  on 
women  ;  to  them  only  a  bare  support  was  given  in  lieu 
of  the  virtue  and  liberty  they  had  been  compelled  to 
barter.  It  was  considered  wonderful  that  the  royal 
Brigham  took  off  his  hat  to  some  Sisters  of  Mercy  whc^ 
visited  his  city  in  1870  on  business  of  their  community. 
He  never  uncovered  his  head  to  the  women  of  the  Bee- 
hive. Mormon  prints  and  pictures  show  that  he  even 
wore  his  hat  at  meals,  when  all  his  consorts  and  families 
were  present.  Indeed,  he  was  accustomed  to  declare 
that  his  superior  did  not  exist  on  earth,  and  therefore 
there  was  no  one  in  whose  honor  he  could  be  expected 
to  lift  his  hat.  Sometimes  he  could  not  well  remove 
it,  for  during  a  season  in  which  he  was  unusually  given 
to  vanity,  his  hair  of  a  morning  was  done  up  in  curling 

256 


A   Glance  at  the  Latter-Day  Saints 

papers  and  hairpins.  The  lady  on  whom  he  had  be- 
stowed the  latest  reversion  of  his  hand  prepared  him  to 
appear  before  his  callers  at  his  daily  lev^e  in  all  the 
bravery  of  well-oiled  ringlets.  Towards  the  close  of  his 
life  he  dressed  in  the  latest  fashion. 

IV 

The  sons  of  Brigham  Young,  like  the  sons  of  royalty 
in  general,  were  celebrated  for  what  is  vulgarly  called 
rowdyism  —  whiskey,  fast  horses,  furious  driving;  be- 
sides which  all  were  polygamists.  His  daughters,  said 
to  be  the  boldest  maidens  in  the  holy  city,  were  early 
"married  into  polygamy,"  with  his  fullest  approbation. 
Though  his  consorts  lived  in  retirement  and  with  great 
economy  as  to  furniture,  food,  and  apparel,  his  descend- 
ants were  accused  of  taking  on  airs  on  account  of  their 
blood  royal.  Indeed  Brigham  was  not  at  all  satisfied 
with  the  doings  of  his  children,  though  his  family  was 
the  best  regulated  in  Utah,  "a  pattern  to  the  Saints." 
He  had  a  sort  of  phonetic  way  of  quoting  Scripture, 
and  would  render  a  well-known  text,  "according  to  his 
experience  " :  "  Train  up  a  child,  and  away  they  go." 
Though  he  was  a  declared  enemy  to  education,  one  of 
his  consorts  was  schoolmistress  to  the  children  of  the 
rest,  and,  as  they  grew  older,  he  gave  them  other  advan- 
tages, even  sending  some  of  them  to  college.  But  his- 
liberality  in  this  respect  never  extended  beyond  his 
own  children. 

The  greatest  virtue  a  Mormon  can  possess  is  to  pay 
his  "tithing"  promptly.    The  Church  was  the  universal 
'7  257 


A    Glance  at  the  Latter-Day   Saints 

merchant,  and  through  "  Zion's  co-operative  stores" 
and  their  branches,  the  first  Presidency  organized  all 
commerce  to  their  own  advantage.  While  the  heads  of 
the  church  reveled  in  luxury,  the  people  had  but  a  bare 
subsistence.  Despite  Brigham's  perpetual  preaching  of 
industry,  there  were  some  drones  in  the  hive,  and  not  a 
few  were  supported  by  their  wives.  But  profits  of  all 
kinds  fell  into  his  hands.  One  of  his  wives,  so-called, 
who  escaped  from  him  in  1874,  in  the  legal  proceedings 
she  instituted  against  him,  declared  that  he  was  worth 
eight  million  dollars,  and  had  a  monthly  income  of  forty 
thousand  dollars  besides.  Events  since  have  proved 
that  she  correctly  estimated  his  goods  and  chattels,  yet 
he  denied  that  his  income  exceeded  six  thousand  dol- 
lars a  month  —  an  immense  sum  at  that  time  in  Utah, 
especially  for  a  man  who  had  no  rent  and  little  taxes 
to  pay. 

To-day,  thanks  to  Gentile  enterprise,  the  Mormon 
capital  is  a  beautiful  city,  especially  when  viewed  from 
a  distance,  and  in  spring  and  summer.  Trees,  gardens, 
cornfields,  patches  of  vivid  green,  starred  with  golden 
rod  and  sunflowers,  bright  sky,  sparkling  waters,  con- 
trast  finely  with  the  sombre  gray  and  brown  of  the 
surrounding  mountains.  The  temple  built  of  white 
granite  has  cost  millions.  The  Assembly  House,  used 
in  cold  weather  for  Sunday  meetings,  is  a  fair,  graceful 
building.  The  tabernacle  is  grotesquely  ugly;  even  the 
saints  themselves  irreverently  compare  it  to  a  huge 
gopher  or  land  turtle.  It  seats  eight  to  ten  thousand 
people,  and,  as  the  walls  are  almost  all  doors,  it  could 

258 


A  Glance  at  the  Latter- Day   Saints 

in  case  of  accident  be  emptied  in  three  minutes.  There 
is  no  sign  of  religion  in  it.  Its  gray  walls  are  bare  and 
unsightly.  Lions  couchant  and  a  beehive  are  the  only 
adornments  of  this  temple  of  fanaticism. 

Mormonism  is  a  materialistic  religion  ;  one  of  the 
hymns  begs  some  not  well-defined  deity  to 

"  Celestialize  and  purify 
This  earth  for  perfect  Mormons." 

Their  aspirations  begin  and  end  in  earth.  The 
most  desolate  spot  in  the  whole  world  is,  I  think,  the 
Mormon  cemetery.  No  sign  of  faith,  hope,  or  love ; 
no  solemn  trees,  no  green  turf,  no  soaring  cross,  no 
emblematic  dove.  In  family  "  lots  "  wives  lie  at  the 
foot  of  the  husband  in  the  order  of  their  decease. 
The  mortality  in  early  days  was  immense,  especially 
among  children.  It  was  said  that  the  deceased  chil- 
dren of  Brigham  would  fill  a  fair-sized  graveyard. 

V 

The  handsomest  dwelling  house  in  Utah  is  the 
mansion  known  as  the  Amelia  Palace,  built  by  Brigham 
for  his  favorite,  Amelia  Folsom,  a  native  of  Massa- 
chusetts. It  is  erected  on  a  beautiful  lawn,  surrounded 
by  trees  and  gardens,  and  would  be  a  splendid  resi- 
dence in  any  city.  Here  Brigham  died  August  29, 
1877,  ^^  t^^  g"^f  ^^^  wonderment  of  many  of  his 
disciples,  who  thought  their  prophet  would  never  see 
death.  His  widows  roamed  the  streets  disconsolate, 
weeping  into  immense  towels,  and  shrieking  in  every 

?59 


A  Glance  at  the  Latter- Day  Saints 

variety  of  tone  :  "  The  Prophet  is  dead  !  "  Every  one 
of  them,  save  the  contumacious  Ann  Eliza,  who,  insti- 
gated by  some  Gentile  barbarians,  had  instituted  pro- 
ceedings against  him,  was  a  widow  "  well  left."  Each 
had  a  house  and  lot.     Amelia  is  quite  wealthy. 

As  to  religion,  I  fear  the  wretched  high  priest  died 
as  he  had  lived.  A  descendant  of  his  told  a  Catholic 
lady  at  the  time  that  he  frequently  muttered  on  the 
last  day  of  his  sinful  life :  "  I  never  had  a  wife  but  one, 
and  that  was  my  first."  He  had  ample  opportunities 
of  knowing  the  truth  which  would  have  freed  him  from 
his  unruly  passions ;  but  avarice  and  sensuality  and 
ambition  were  strong  in  his  craven  soul  to  the  last,  so 
far  as  can  be  ascertained.  As  early  as  1866  a  priest 
ventured  to  reside  in  the  holy  city  —  a  Father  Kelly, 
sent  thither  by  the  Archbishop  of  San  Francisco,  in 
whose  diocese  the  New  Jerusalem  then  was.  Every- 
thing was  done  to  drive  him  from  this  difficult  mission. 
The  saints  whittled  about  his  poor  hut  day  and  night.* 
Nothing  of  this  kind  was  ever  done  but  by  the  instiga- 
tion of  the  Prophet ;  if  he  did  not  commit  murder  with 

*An  obnoxious  stranger  was  frequently  "whittled  out  of 
town."  Mormon  men  and  boys  would  surround  his  house  in  per- 
fect silence.  Each  had  a  knife  and  a  stick  of  wood.  When  the 
unfortunate  Gentile  appeared,  they  all  began  to  slice  off  pieces  of 
wood,  bringing  their  knives  as  near  to  his  face  as  possible.  They 
followed  him  everywhere,  but  never  actually  touched  him.  To 
see  sharp  knives  flashing  continually  about  his  head  and  face  was 
more  than  the  bravest  man  could  stand.  Few  could  bear  it  for  a 
day.  When  these  persons  left,  they  were  said  to  have  been 
"  whittled  out  of  town." 

260 


A   Glance  at  the  Latter-Day   Saints 

his  own  hands,  it  is  certain  that  he  inspired,  suggested, 
or  even  commanded  many  a  one.  The  priest  boldly 
appealed  to  him  for  protection.  He  was  astonished  (!) 
that  any  had  behaved  so  inhospitably  to  the  interest- 
ing stranger,  whom  he  immediately  covered  with  the 
CBgis  of  his  protection,  and  the  priest  was  henceforth 
unmolested.  Brigham  expressed  the  greatest  friend- 
ship for  him,  asked  him  many  questions,  professed 
himself  "almost  persuaded"  to  become  a  Catholic,  but 
virtually  concluded  every  conference  in  the  words  of 
another  who  preferred  the  honors  of  this  world  to  the 
glory  of  the  next:  "I  will  hear  thee  again  concerning 
this  matter." 

Brigham  expressed  a  strong  desire  for  Irish*  disciples. 
He  considered  the  class  of  Irish  likely  to  be  induced  to 
emigrate  excellent  farmers,  and  was  most  anxious  to 
have  them  settle  in  his  territory  in  large  numbers.  His 
missionaries  were  not  at  all  successful  in  the  Emerald 
Isle.  Indeed  the  Irish  have  always  been  conspicuous 
among  the  Mormons  only  by  their  absence.  Brigham 
told  an  Irish  lady  that  he  always  did  what  he  set  his 
heart  on,  and  that  he  would  live  to  see  plenty  of  Irish 
in  Zion.  So  he  did,  but  not  in  the  way  he  expected. 
It  was  not  Irish  bishops,  priests,  religious,  and  laity 
that  he  courted,  but  this  was  the  only  Irish  immigra- 
tion he  ever  saw.  When  Father  Kelly  said  Mass  in  a 
hovel  in  the  den  of  vice  that  Salt  Lake  City  then  was, 
his  congregation  consisted  of  a  few  Irish  soldiers  from 
the  neighboring  camp,  and  some  miners  and  smelters. 
Fervently  they  besought  the  good  God,  through  the 

261 


A   Glance  at  the   Latter -Day   Saints 

intercession  of  the  purest  of  Virgins,  the  Maid  without 
a  stain,  to  plant  His  holy  Church  in  this  fair  land,  and 
create  a  chaste  generation  in  this  modern  Gomorrha. 
Soon  after,  the  railroads  opened  up  this  unexplored 
region  to  the  Gentiles,  and  Mormonism,  which  cannot 
bear  the  light  of  day,  was  no  longer  cloistered.  The 
spread  of  Catholic  principles  more  than  any  other 
means  would  cure  the  loathsome  ulcer  on  the  breast  of 
a  great  nation.  From  the  first  the  Catholic  Church 
has  been  respected  by  the  Mormon,  who  sees  little  dif- 
ference between  his  own  "celestial  ordinance"  of  si- 
multaneous polygamy  and  the  progressive  polygamy 
sanctioned  by  divorce.  Nor  is  it  easy  to  persuade 
him  that  he  has  not  as  much  right  to  interpret  the 
Bible  in  favor  of  his  peculiar  institution  as  the  non- 
Catholic  has  to  interpret  it  in  favor  of  monogamy. 

The  sagacious  Brigham,  a  man  of  unusual  adminis- 
trative ability  and  great  natural  gifts,  saw  this,  and  he 
often  seemed  on  the  verge  of  conversion.  He  ad- 
mitted that  he  tried  hard  and  in  vain  to  convert  the 
first  priest  he  met  in  Utah.  But  he  often  averred  that 
this  priest  could  have  converted  him  had  he  remained 
long  enough  and  tried  hard  enough.  It  is  certain  that 
he  showed  more  respect  to  Catholic  clergy  and  religious 
than  to  any  other  persons,  even  princes.  And  when, 
to  the  wonder  of  America,  Sisters  settled  in  Zion,  the 
patriarch  declared  himself  their  protector,  would  stop 
his  carriage  if  he  met  them  in  the  street,  and  graciously 
inquire  how  they  were  doing.  He  even  invited  them, 
should  they  be  in  need  of  spiritual  advice  or  direction, 

262 


A   Glance  at  the  Latter-Day   Saints 

to  come  to  him,  assuring  them  they  would  always  find 
him  ready  and  willing  to  instruct  and  direct  them! 

But,  indeed,  the  astute  Brigham  had  quite  enough 
to  do  to  give  advice  and  direction  in  his  own  house- 
hold. Bitter  quarrels,  intense  animosity,  indescribable 
scenes  of  violence,  results  of  a  vicious  system  that 
brought  the  worst  passions  to  the  surface,  were  not 
unusual  in  his  wide  domestic  circle.  Sometimes  he  was 
obliged  to  threaten  to  drive  all  his  consorts  away,  and 
"go  to  heaven  alone."  More  often  he  consoled  them 
with  empty  promises.  The  older  ones,  known  as 
"  Mothers  in  Israel,"  he  promised  to  rejuvenate  in 
the  resurrection ;  with  the  younger  ones  he  used  diplo- 
macy, and  to  all  in  general  he  declared  that  they  must 
bear  their  miseries  cheerfully,  for  "he  would  not  have 
whining  women  about  him." 

Verily,  the  most  wretched  women  on  earth  were  in 
this  happy  valley  by  Jordan's  stream.  To  see  them 
pour  out  of  the  huge,  ugly  tabernacle  of  a  bright  Sun- 
day afternoon  was  to  look  upon  a  sea  of  faces  from 
which  all  love  and  graciousness  seemed  banished,  and 
on  which  sin  and  sorrow  and  unsanctified  suffering  had 
left  indelible  traces.  They  were  of  every  age  and  of 
almost  every  country.  True,  they  were  to  a  great  ex- 
tent of  the  lowest  and  most  degraded  classes.  But 
there  were  among  them,  too,  women  of  education  and 
so-called  refinement,  who  had  been  lured  into  this 
seething  vortex  by  the  deceitful  tongues  of  Mormon 
missionaries.  Why  did  not  these  leave  ?  Because  they 
could  not.     There  was  neither  ingress  nor  egress  save 

263 


A   Glance  at  the  Latter-Day   Saints 

through  the  terrible  Mokanna ;  if  they  did  leave,  they 
would  lose  their  way  of  living,  such  as  it  was;  and 
worst  of  all  to  a  woman's  heart,  they  would  never 
again  see  their  unfortunate  children.  Poor  creatures, 
they  regarded  their  fate  as  the  inevitable  to  which  they 
must,  per  force,  reconcile  themselves.  And,  in  the 
midst  of  the  tortures  of  their  hideous  condition,  they 
would  say,  with  a  sort  of  blasphemous  resignation :  We 
are  made  to  suffer;  we  must  go  on  suffering;  we  must 
bear  our  awful  cross  ;  we  must  live  our  religion.  God 
wills  it. 

Every  English-speaking  country  was  represented 
among  the  Mormons,  as  I  have  said,  except  Ireland. 
This  was  a  great  grief  to  Brigham  Young.  He  was 
willing  to  give  the  Irish  "a  refuge  from  famine  and 
danger."  He  looked  for  them  in  Ireland  ;  he  sought 
them  earnestly  among  the  Irish  settlers  in  England, 
Scotland,  Wales,  America ;  he  sent  his  most  eloquent 
apostles  into  the  highways  and  byways  of  the  world 
to  compel  them,  so  to  say,  to  come  to  his  banquet,  but 
not  one  of  them  came.  Surely  this  is  a  grand  thing  for 
the  island  of  genuine  saints.  That  they  should  be 
faithful  in  their  own  country,  where  they  are  so 
shielded,  is  not  surprising  in  the  light  of  their  past 
record ;  but  we  must  thank  God  specially  for  their 
fidelity  in  other  lands,  where  wealth  and  social  posi- 
tion, and  in  several  cases  intellectual  ability,  succumbed. 

They  are  now  in  Utah  in  large  numbers,  and  they 
have  contributed  their  share  to  the  victories  won  over 
the  Mormons  within  the  past  year  by  the  other  settlers 

264 


A   Glance  at  the  Latter-Day  Saints 

—  victories  which  have  broken  the  power  of  the  Saints 
and  are  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  their  hideous  cari- 
cature of  a  theocracy.  May  they  ever  preserve  intact 
the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints.  May  they  re- 
main in  the  future  what  they  have  been  in  the  past,  the 
chaste  generation  whose  memory  is  immortal.  Under 
the  protection  of  the  Mother  of  Mercy  may  they  con- 
tinue to  bring  up  their  children  in  the  fear  and  love  of 
God  and  the  practise  of  holiness.  And,  appreciating 
the  freedom  of  which  they  were  of  old  deprived  in 
their  own  fair  land,  may  they  ever  preserve  to  them- 
selves and  to  others  that  higher  and  more  blessed  free- 
dom wherewith  Christ  hath  made  us  free. 


265 


THE    NINE-DAYS'   QUEEN 

hiE  most  superficial  student  of  history  can  hardly 
fail  to  observe  that  the  heroic  vanishes  from 
royalty,  especially  female  royalty,  with  the 
Catholic  faith.  The  great  qualities  of  the  Saxon, 
Norman,  and  Plantagenet  queens  of  England,  for  in- 
stance, have  never  been  reproduced  in  their  Protestant 
successors.  I  speak  not  of  the  sainted  queens — Pro- 
testants have  disclaimed  sanctity  from  the  beginning. 
"  How  dare  you  mention  such  persons  in  my  presence?" 
asked  the  godly  Edward  VI.,  in  a  rage,  when  an  Angli- 
can prelate,  from  old  habit,  swore  "  by  the  saints,"  be- 
fore his  youthful  majesty.  Heroic  sanctity  has  never 
been  achieved,  or  even  deemed  possible,  outside  of  the 
one  fold  whereof  Christ  is  the  Shepherd.  I  speak 
merely  of  high  courage,  extraordinary  fihal,  conjugal, 
or  maternal  devotedness,  intense  patriotism,  great  pen- 
ance wherever  great  faults  were  to  be  expiated,  and 
lavish  charities  to  the  orphan,  the  student,  the  plague- 
stricken,  and  the  stranger. 

There  is  one  lady,  however,  who,  at  first  sight,  seems 
to  be  an  exception  to  all  this.  She  wore  a  crown  for 
nine  days,  and  the  people  called  her  the  "  Epiphany 
Queen,"  and  "The  Nine-Days'  Wonder."  Although 
Jane  Grey,  or  more  properly,  Jane  Dudley,  has  never 
awakened  in  the  public  mind  at  large  either  interest  or 
enthusiasm,  yet  there  is  no  character  in  history  more 

266 


The  Niuc-Day.s^    ^mcti 

completely  taken  on  faith  by  the  few  who  have  written 
her  praises.  Her  very  faults  are  canonized.  Mrs. 
Sandford*  told  our  grandmothers  that  Jane  would  not 
have  been  so  amiable  had  she  been  less  submissive 
{i.  e.,  in  the  matter  of  usurping  her  sovereign's  throne). 
"  Her  graces,"  said  she,  "  like  gems  whose  brilliancy  is 
increased  by  an  opaque  setting,  gathered  strength  in 
her  adversity."  Miss  Strickland  f  has  exhausted  the 
language  of  eulogy  in  describing  one  whom  she  afifirms 
to  be  **  the  most  noble  character  of  the  royal  Tudor 
lineage,  endowed  with  every  attribute  that  is  lovely  in 
domestic  life,  while  her  piety,  learning,  courage,  and 
virtue,  qualified  her  to  give  lustre  to  a  crown."  "  Early 
wise,"  "sweet  and  saintly,"  "peerless,"  "heavenly- 
minded,"  "angelic,"  "lovely,"  "innocent,"  "candid," 
"divine,"  are  but  a  few  of  the  flattering  epithets  which 
this  celebrated  biographer  showers  upon  her  youthful 
heroine.  Catholic  writers,  too,  have  been  fascinated  by 
the  qualities  with  which  some  have  invested  her,  no 
less  than  by  her  tragic  fate.  The  Dublin  RvviewX 
testifies  that  she  "  left  a  loved  and  honored  memory  to 
the  world  —  the  memory  of  a  victim,  almost  a  martyr." 
A  popular  essayist  and  novelist  of  our  day  aflfirms  that 
Jane  Grey  was  incomparably  more  noble  than  the  two 
beheaded  queens  of    France,  Mary  Stuart  and   Marie 

*Life  of  Ladv  Jane  Grey,  in  English  Female  Worthies,  vol.  i. 
London :  1833. 

T  Lives  of  the  Tudor  Princesses.     By  Agnes  Strickland.    Lon- 
don :  1866.     Also,  Lives  of  the  Qiieens  of  England,  by  the  same. 

{October  number,  1875. 

267 


The  Nine- Day s'^   ^ueen 

Antoinette.  "She  suffered  to  the  full  as  deeply  as 
either" — a  great  mistake  —  "and  yet,"  he  asks,  with 
evident  surprise,  "  what  place  has  she  in  men's  feelings 
and  interests  compared  with  theirs?"* 

The  poets  have  come  to  the  aid  of  the  essayists, 
biographers,  and  historians.  The  laureate  of  England 
makes  poetic  license  verge  on  the  impossible  in  his  elo- 
quent description  of  the  saint  of  his  drama: 

"Seventeen  —  and  knew  eight  languages  —  in  music 

Peerless  —  her  needle  perfect,  and  her  learning 

Beyond  the  churchmen;  yet  so  meek,  so  modest 

So  wife-like,  humble  to  the  trivial  boy. 

Mismatched  with  her  for  policy  !  "  f 

And  there  are  few  more  beautiful  passages  in 
English  poetry  than  that  which  Sir  Aubrey  de  Vere 
puts  into  the  mouth  of  Jane,  in  the  parting  interview 
which  he  imagines  between  the  Duchess  of  Suffolk  and 
her  child,  the  length  of  which  precludes  its  insertion 

here. 

Strange  it  is  that  the  contemporaries  of  this  unfor- 
tunate lady  were  unable  to  perceive,  or  unwilling  to 
acknowledge,  the  existence  of  these  marvelous  quali- 
ties which  have  dazzled  her  modern  panegyrists.  Her 
early  patroness,  Catharine  Parr;  her  sometime  fellow- 
student,  Edward  VI. ;  her  royal  cousins,  the  Princesses 
Mary  and  Elizabeth ;  her  sisters,  Lady  Catharine  and 
Lady  Mary  Grey,  all  good  scholars  and  ready  writers, 
failed   so   utterly  to  be   struck  with  the  wonderful,  if 

*  Justin  McCarthy,  in  Modern  Leaders.  New  York:  1872. 
Sheldon  &  Co. 

t  Queen  Mary.  A  Drama.  By  Alfred  Tennyson.  London:  1875. 

268 


The  Nine-Days^   ^ucen 

not  miraculous,  gifts  and  graces  with  which  the  nine- 
teenth century  has  invested  their  hapless  relative,  that 
no  allusion  is  made  to  her  erudition  or  her  sanctity  in 
their  letters,  memoirs,  or  journals.  I  cannot  find  any 
evidence  that  she  was  loved  or  revered  by  a  single  con- 
temporary, even  of  her  own  or  her  husband's  family. 
If  I  am  wrong,  some  one  will  have  the  goodness  to  en- 
lighten me,  but  I  really  find  little  to  support  Jane's 
fame  as  a  scholar,  save  the  rather  interested  testimony 
of  Roger  Ascham,*  while  her  title  to  sanctity  has  been 
manufactured  by  no  less  a  personage  than  the  veracious 
martyrologist,  Fox.f  Indeed,  if  Jane's  contemporaries 
were  of  the  same  opinion  as  her  admirers  of  to-day, 
she  would  certainly  have  figured  as  a  Protestant  saint 
— a  distinction  to  which  she  was  fully  as  well  entitled 
as  her  handsome,  deceitful  relative.  King  Charles,  "the 
Martyr,"  sole  incumbent  of  the  Protestant  calendar. 

Even  the  boy-king,  Edward  VI.,  whose  wife  Jane 
was  brought  up  to  be,  was  perfectly  insensible  to  her 
charms,  and  indignantly  spurned  the  idea  of  marrying 
her,:}:  saying  he  would  have  a  foreign   princess,  "  well 

*A8cham's  Schoolmaster. 

t  Fox's  Book  of  Martyrs. 

J  Edward  Sixth's  Journal.  This  prince  was  the  son  of  a  private 
gentlewoman,  the  detestable  Jane  Seymour,  which  connection 
gave  the  youthful  majesty  of  England  near  relations  named  Smith, 
one  of  his  mother's  sisters  having  chosen  a  husband  of  that  homely 
name.  Another  of  the  queen's  sisters  was  married  to  one  Crom- 
well, grandson  to  a  blacksmith  at  Putney.  The  haughty  young 
Tudor  had  already  more  kin  of  low  degree  than  he  cared  to  ac- 
knowledge. 

269 


The  Nine-Days''    ^ucen 

stuffed  and  jeweled."  He  was  actually  engaged  to 
the  Princess  Elizabeth  of  France  for  some  months 
previous  to  his  premature  death. 

Mary  Tudor  was  one  of  the  most  thorough  and 
elegant  scholars  that  ever  graced  a  throne.  In  point 
of  years  she  might  have  been  Jane's  mother.  Much 
intercourse  took  place  between  the  cousins,  and  Mary, 
both  as  princess  and  as  queen,  showed  great  and  con- 
stant kindness  to  the  cadet  branches  of  her  family.  Yet 
so  far  as  I  can  discover,  there  is  no  evidence  that  this 
learned  princess  ever  perceived  in  her  cousin  the  un- 
common intellectual  endowments  and  saint-like  virtues, 
the  mere  recital  of  which  charms  posterity.  That  Mary 
was  not  insensible  to  extraordinary  ability  is  proved  by 
the  fact  that,  even  amid  the  stormy  scenes  of  her  early 
maiden  reign,  she  found  time  to  examine  and  correct 
the  Latin  exercises  of  another  cousin,  related  to  her  in 
exactly  the  same  degree  as  Jane,  the  boy-prodigy, 
Darnley,  who  is  allowed  to  have  entirely  surpassed  the 
far-famed  progress  of  his  cousins,  Edward  VI.,  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  Lady  Jane  Grey.* 

By  their  de^ds,  rather  than-  by  the  speeches  and 
sentiments  attributed  to  them  by  partisan  writers, 
ought  the  men  and  women  of  history  to  rise  or  sink  in 
our  estimation;  and  the  more  virtue  they  can  be  proved 
to  possess,  the  more  pleasing  the  task  of  the  biographer. 
But  truth  ought  to  be  the  first  ingredient  of  history ; 

*Life  of  Lady  Margaret  Douglas,  who,  through  her  son, 
Darnley,  husband  of  Mary  Stuart,  is  ancestress  of  almost  every 
royal  personage  in  Europe. 

270 


The  Nine- Days'   ^uec7i 

nor  can  a  good  cause  be  really  advanced  by  falsehood. 
An  excellent  authority  affirms  that  for  the  last  three 
centuries  history  has  been  little  else  than  a  conspiracy 
against  truth.  The  lies  of  history  during  that  period 
have  been  chiefly  in  the  interest  of  Protestantism,  and 
with  what  results?  Protestantism  was  never  less  re- 
spectable than  it  is  to-day ;  its  brightest  minds,  its 
purest  hearts,  have  sought  and  continue  to  seek  rest  in 
the  maternal  bosom  of  the  Unchangeable  Church.  We 
will  endeavor  to  give  in  these  pages  all  that  remains  of 
an  acknowledged  Protestant  heroine  when  fact  is  separ- 
ated from  rhetoric,  the  sober,  historical  truth, —  so  far 
as  it  can  be  discerned  at  this  distant  period, —  of  a 
youthful  lady  of  demi-royal  descent,  who  would  prob- 
ably have  left  no  "  footprints  in  the  sands  of  time," 
during  Queen  Mary's*  reign,  had  she  not  usurped  a 
throne,  and,  as  a  consequence  of  her  temerity,  mounted 
a  scaffold. 

The  grandmother  of  Lady  Jane  Grey  is  celebrated 
in  contemporary  chronicles  as  the  fairest  princess  in 
Europe.  Born  towards  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, Mary  Tudor,  youngest  surviving  child  of  Henry 
VII.  and  Elizabeth  of  York,  was,  at  the  age  of  ten,  affi- 
anced to  the  Archduke  Charles  of  Austria,  afterwards 
the  renowned  Charles  V.  At  sixteen  she  married  the 
mature  widower,  Louis  XII.,  King  of  France,  who, 
dying  in  less  than  three  months,  left  her  a  not  very 

*Had  Jane  lived  to  the  next  reign,  she  would  certainly  have 
been  persecuted  by  Qiieen  IClizabeth,  as  her  sisters  Catharine  and 
Mary  were. 

271 


The  Nine-Days''   ^ueen 

disconsolate  widow.  Ciiarles  Brandon,  a  favorite  of  her 
brother,  Henry  VIII.,  was  dispatched  to  France  for  the 
purpose  of  escorting  the  princess  to  England  ;  but  was 
previously  obliged  to  take  a  solemn  oath  before  the 
king  and  the  all-powerful  Wolsey,  that  "  he  would  not 
abuse  his  trust  by  any  particular  manifestation  of  par- 
tiality towards  the  young  queen  consigned  to  his  guar- 
dianship." 

Oaths,  vows,  or  promises  were  never  deemed  very 
sacred  by  that  handsome  miscreant.  Undeterred  by 
the  fact  that  two  or  three  living  ladies*  claimed  him  as 
a  husband,  he  broke  his  oath  at  the  earliest  opportu- 
nity ;  the  marriage  ceremony  was  performed  over  him- 
self and  the  royal  widow  of  six  weeks,  in  Paris,  February 
12,  15 1 5.  As  Brandon  had  been  domesticated  in  her 
father's  family  from  infancy,  and  is  said  to  have  been 
the  first  object  of  her  girlish  devotion,  the  princess 
could  not  have  been  ignorant  of  his  matrimonial  en- 
tanglements. And  even  if  she  were,  her  virtuous  sister- 
in-law  took  care  to  send  a  special  messenger  to  Paris  to 
warn  her  that  the  captivating  Suffolk  was  not  free  to 
contract  matrimony  anew.  Indeed,  a  recent  writer  f 
has  severely  censured  the  Spanish  queen  for  endeavor- 
ing to  prevent  this  iniquitous  connection.  But  this 
person,  so  far  from  being  able  to  write  history,  is  incapa- 

*  He  deserted  his  first  wife,  a  daughter  of  Sir  Anthony  Browne, 
and  married  her  cousin,  Lady  Mortimer.  The  Church  compelled 
him  to  return  to  his  lawful  wife.  His  third  venture  was  the  heir- 
ess of  Lord  Lisle,  by  whom  he  had  his  title,  Viscount  Lisle. 

\  W.  H.  Dixon,  in  History  of  Two  Queens. 

2':2 


The  Nine-Days'   ^uccn 

ble  of  giving  a  truthful  description  of  a  famous  city* 
which  he  traveled  thousands  of  miles  to  see  and  exam- 
ine. 

The  mother  of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  Frances,  eldest 
daughter  of  Charles  Brandon  and  Mary  Tudor,  was  of 
illegitimate  birth  ;  hence  it  was  often  argued  that  the 
crown  could  not  descend  through  this  lady.  Her  sister 
Lady  Eleanor  f  Brandon,  however,  was  universally  al- 
lowed to  be  of  legitimate  birth ;  the  claimants  on  her 
father's  hand  died  before  she  was  born,  although  it  was 
not  till  1529  that  Cardinal  Wolsey  had  the  marriage  of 
the  princess  with  Suffolk  confirmed. 

Henry  Grey,  Marquis  of  Dorset,  was  the  father  of 
Jane.  Grey  repudiated  his  wife,  Catharine  Fitzalan, 
daughter  of  the  Earl  of  Arundel,  to  form  a  more  lofty 
alliance  with  a  niece  of  Henry  VHL,  a  crime  which  the 

*  Americans  who  have  read  this  gentleman's  description  of 
Salt  Lake  City  will  credit  him  with  a  rather  lively  imagination. 
Mr.  McCarthy  remained  almost  as  long  in  that  capital  as  Mr. 
Dixon,  but  could  see  nothing  of  the  beauties  out  of  which  the  latter 
made  the  larger  part  of  a  volume.  "  Oh,  Hepworth  Dixon,"  he 
exclaims,  after  a  careful  survey  of  the  morally  and  physically 
filthy  capital  of  Mormondom,  "  how  could  you  write  so  about  its 
theatre.?  Or  was  the  beautiful  temple  of  the  drama  Avhich  you 
saw  here  deliberately  taken  down,  and  did  they  raise  in  its  place 
the  big,  gaunt,  ugly,  dirty,  dismal  structure  which  7  saw,  and  in 
which  I  and  my  companions  made  part  of  a  dreary  dozen  or  two 
of  audience,  and  blinked  in  the  dim,  depressing  light  of  medineval 
oil-lamps?" — Mr.  McCarthy,  in  Galaxy. 

t  See  Life  of  Ladv  Margaret  Cliflford,  daughter  of  Eleanor 
Brandon,  who  claimed  precedence  of  the  sisters  of  Jane  Grey,  as 
being  of  legitimate  descent. 

18  J73 


The  Nine-Days''    ^ueen 

deserted  wife's  kindred  avenged  when  Grey's  daughter 
usurped  the  throne.  Grey  was  not  royally  descended, 
as  his  pensioner  Ulmer,  *  a  German  Reformer,  errone- 
ously states.  As  soon  as  monastic  spoils  began  to  be 
scattered  among  the  greedy  courtiers  of  Henry  VIII., 
Dorset  became,  as  Ulmer  writes,  "  the  thunderbolt  and 
terror  of  the  Papists,  their  fierce  and  terrible  adver- 
sary." f 

This  Grey  was  about  as  wicked  as  his  slender  ability 
would  permit ;  a  bad  son,  a  bad  husband,  a  bad  father,  a 
bad  brother,  a  bad  subject.  The  churchmen  of  those 
times  were  reluctant  politicians  ;  the  king  was  obliged  to 
seek  their  services  owing  to  the  ignorance,  incapacity, 
and  drunkenness  of  the  nobles  ;  and  Suffolk  and  Dorset, 
grandfather  and  father  of  Jane,  are  particularized  among 
such  nobles  as  being  "  almost  illiterate."  j^  They  are 
not,  therefore,  invested  even  with  the  interest  that 
often  attaches  to  clever  rogues.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  Frances  Brandon  surpassed  her  worthless  mate  in 
intellectual  endowments,  education,  or  moral  rectitude; 
or  rather  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  she  did  not. 
Judging  by  the  letters  which  remain,  the  Queen  Duch- 
ess herself  had  more  intellect  than  her  immediate  de- 
scendants. Some  of  the  best  of  these  are  addressed  to 
her  redoubtable  brother,  Henry  VIII.:  "  My  most  dear- 
est and  right  entirely  beloved  lord  and  brother,"  and 
subscribed,  "  Your  loving  sister,  Mary,  Queen  of  France." 

*  Zurich  Letters, 
flbid. 

X  Burke's  Men  and  Women  of  the  English  Reformation,  vol.  i. 
274 


The  Nine-Days''    ^ueen 

This  princess  is  that  "  Mary  bright  of  hue,"  whom 
Sir  Thomas  More  represents  the  dying  EHzabeth  of 
York  praying  God  to  make  "  virtuous,  wise,  and  for- 
tunate." This  prayer  was  not  granted,  though  we  may 
well  hope  that  the  follies  of  her  early  years  were  expi- 
ated by  the  sorrows  and  sufferings  amid  which  she  closed 
her  short  and  troubled  life.  Queen  Elizabeth  of  York 
has  been  highly  eulogized  for  her  graces  and  virtues. 
Her  biographers  style  her  "  Elizabeth  the  Good."  But 
if  this  royal  lady  be  judged  by  her  children  who  reached 
maturity  —  Margaret,  Queen  of  Scotland,  a  woman  of 
scandalous  life,  Henry  VHI.,  and  Mary,  the  Queen- 
Duchess,  her  character  as  a  mother  would  scarcely 
stand  very  high. 

It  is  not  from  parents  such  as  we  have  described 
that  saints  or  scholars  usually  spring.  Lady  Jane  Grey 
did  not  certainly  inherit  the  virtues  and  abilities  with 
which  her  eulogists  invest  her.  We  shall  see  that  she 
was  little  more  fortunate  in  her  friends,  companions, 
and  tutors,  who  were,  for  the  most  part,  mere  syco- 
phants of  the  party  in  power,  apostates,  church-rob- 
bers, and  friars  of  infamous  life,  who  gloried  in  their 
shame,  and  whose  greatest  boast  was  that  they  had 
made  vows  to  the  Most  High  and  violated  them. 

It  is  not  perhaps  the  most  gracious  task  in  the 
world  to  take  down  from  its  pedestal  a  popular  idol ; 
and  such  a  few  of  our  contemporaries  have  sought  to 
make  Lady  Jane  Grey.  Her  memory  as  a  Protestant 
saint  and  martyr  is  endeared  to  the  Protestant  mind — • 
though  she  was  rather  a  Calvinist  than  a  Protestant — ^ 

275 


The  Nine- Days''   ^ueen 

and  her  tragic  fate  has  shrouded  her  with  a  lurid  glare 
which  some  have  mistaken  for  the  aureola  of  sanctity. 

The  history  of  Lady  Jane  Grey  has  several  points 
of  resemblance  with  that  of  her  cousin,  Arabella  Stuart, 
who  married  a  descendant  of  Jane's  sister.  Lady  Catha- 
rine Grey.  Both  —  one  through  Mary  Tudor,  one 
through  Margaret  Tudor — were  great-granddaughters 
of  Henry  VIL,  and  their  demi-royal  descent  caused 
their  ruin.  The  elder  Disraeli*  might  have  said  of  Jane 
what  he  says  of  Arabella :  "  She  is  said  to  have  been  beau- 
tiful, and  not  to  have  been  beautiful;  her  very  portrait, 
ambiguous  as  her  life,  is  neither  the  one  nor  the  other." 

No  chronicler  has  deemed  it  worth  while  to  give 
the  date  of  Jane's  birth, f  so  far  as  we  have  been  able 
to  discover.  Her  pictures  would  lead  to  the  beHef 
that  she  was  born  several  years  earlier  than  the  period 
usually  assigned.  Her  age  at  the  time  of  her  usurpa- 
tion of  the  throne,  July,  1553,  is  variously  given  as 
sixteen,  seventeen,  and  eighteen.  In  a  letter  from 
UJmer  to  Bullinger,  dated  April,  1550,  Jane  is  stated 
to  be  about  fourteen  years  of  age.  If  so,  she  must 
have  been  born  in  1536;  and  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  this  is  correct,  as  Ulmer  was  domesticated 
with  her  family  at  Bradgate,  and  might  easily  have 
heard,  from  Jane  or  her  parents,  her  exact  age.     She 

*  Curiosities  of  Literature,  vol.  iii. 

t  Lingard  mentions  Jane  as  sixteen  and  as  seventeen,  in  the 
last  year  of  her  life. —  Hist.  England,  vol.  vii.  Fuller  says  she 
was  eighteen. —  Holy  State,  p.  311.  Miss  Strickland  says  she  was 
born  in  October,  1537,  and,  later  on,  that  she  was  exactly  fourteen 
in  May,  1551  ! 

276 


The  Nine- Days'    ^ucen 

could  scarcely  have  been  born  earlier,  as  her  parents 
were  married  in  March,  1533,  and  Jane's  birth  was  pre- 
ceded by  those  of  a  brother  and  sister  who  died  in  in- 
fancy. It  may  well  be  that  Jane  was  born  about  the 
time  of  the  disgrace  of  the  unfortunate  Anne  Boleyn,* 
and  the  exaltation  of  her  vile  rival ;  and  that  as  her 
parents  were  peculiarly  given  to  deserting  the  setting 
and  worshiping  the  rising  sun,  they  called  their  infant 
Jane,  to  compliment  the  triumphant  beauty  whose  star 
was  then  in  the  ascendant. 

Bradgate,  in  Leicestershire,  is  universally  allowed 
to  have  been  the  place  of  Jane's  birth.  Fuller  thus 
describes  it :  "  This  fair,  large,  and  beautiful  palace  was 
erected  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII., 
by  Thomas  Grey,  second  Marquis  of  Dorset.  It  is 
built  principally  of  red  brick,  of  a  square  form,  with  a 
turret  at  each  corner."  Bradgate  must  indeed  have 
been  one  of  the  fairest  homes  in  England.  Its  ruins 
may  be  traced  to-day,  in  a  rural  spot  of  exquisite 
beauty,  five  miles  from  the  town  of  Leicester.  A  tower 
still  stands  which  local  tradition  points  out  as  the  birth- 
place of  the  Nine-Days'  Queen. 

*Anne  Boleyn  was  beheaded  a  little  after  noon,  May  19, 
1536;  the  royal  widower  of  a  few  hours  married  Jane  Seymour  on 
the  morning  of  the  20th.  The  reformers  vied  with  each  other  in 
doing  honor  to  the  successor  of  their  murdered  patroness.  In  the 
dedication  of  Coverdale's  Bible,  the  names  Henry  and  Attiie  were 
introduced,  but  as  Anne  was  beheaded  between  the  printing  and 
the  publication,  J  for  Jane  was  printed  over  the  letters  which 
composed  the  name  Anne,  and  the  wife-killer  associated  with  the 
new  object  of  his  caprice,  on  the  fly-leaves  of  the  Bible. 

277 


The  Nine-Days'^   ^ueen 

The  early  days  of  Jane  are  involved  in  the  com- 
pletest  obscurity.  Who  baptized  her?  Who  held  her 
at  the  font?  What  were  the  first  religious  impressions 
she  received  ?  Did  she  ever  make  her  first  communion  ? 
Was  she  ever  confirmed  ?  At  what  period  was  she 
transferred  from  the  nurse  to  the  governess?  Had  she 
ever  a  governess?  At  what  time  did  Aylmer  become 
her  tutor?  These  particulars  elude  all  our  research. 
We  know,  however,  that  she  was  not  long  alone  in  her 
nursery.  Lady  Catharine  Grey  was  two  years  younger 
than  her  more  celebrated  sister ;  while  the  youngest 
child  of  Henry  Grey  and  Frances  Brandon,  Lady  Mary 
Grey,  was  not  born  till  1545,  when  her  sister  was  about 
nine  years  old. 

The  first  glimpse  history  gives  of  the  "divine  Jane" 
is  in  1546,  when  we  find  her  installed  into  some  office 
about  the  person  of  Henry  VHI.'s  last  Queen,  Catha- 
rine Parr.  She  had,  therefore,  all  the  advantages  likely 
to  accrue  from  being  frequently  in  the  presence  of  her 
royal  grand-uncle,  when  that  degraded  monarch  was  at 
his  very  worst,  which  certainly  was  after  his  marriage 
with  his  Protestant  queen.  The  fact  that  Catharine 
Parr  accepted  the  sixth  reversion  of  the  bloody  hand  of 
Henry  VHI.  a  short  time  after  the  death  of  her  second 
husband,  his  lawful  wife,  Anne  of  Cleves,  being  yet 
alive,  is  sufficiently  eloquent  of  her  character.  One  of 
Luther's  descriptions*  of  the  first  Anglican   Pope  was 

*"  Luther  called  Henry  VIII.  '  the  grossest  of  all  pigs,'  which 
he  probably  was,  and  '  of  all  asses,'  which  he  certainly  was  not." — 
My  Clerical  Friends — Marshall. 

278 


The  Nine-Days''    ^ueen 

never  more  true  than  at  this  period.  He  was  sunk  so 
low,  that  his  sister-in-law,  who  subsequently  stood  in 
the  same  relation  to  Catharine,  says  truly,  "  that  no 
lady  that  stood  on  her  honor  would  venture  on  him." 
When  he  proposed  for  Christina,  Duchess  of  Milan,  that 
princess  informed  him,  with  infinite  scorn,  that  if  she 
had  two  heads  she  would  place  one  at  the  disposal  of 
his  majesty. 

Jane  was  much  in  the  company  of  Catharine  Parr. 
This  lady  had  become  a  disciple  of  the  "new  learning" 
during  her  second  widowhood,  and  was  intimate  with 
most  of  the  reformers,  who  were  accustomed  to  meet  at 

her  house.    There  is  little  doubt  that  her  conversion  to 

» 

the  "godliness"  of  the  age  was  due  to  her  love  for  Sir 
Thomas  Seymour,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  anti-Catho- 
lic party,  and  subsequently  her  fourth  husband.  Per- 
haps, too,  Jane's  Protestantism  was  partially  confirmed 
by  her  love  of  the  handsome  Edward  Seymour,  whom 
she  frequently  met  at  court  *  and  to  whom,  with  the 
consent  of  her  parents,  she  was  contracted  at  an  early 
age.  Neither  Henry  VIII.  nor  his  son  ever  thought  of 
her  as  the  future  queen-consort.  Henry's  latter  years 
were  spent  in  carrying  fire  and  sword  into  Scotland,  to 
seize  the  person  of  its  infant  queen,  Mary  Stuart,  for 
the  bride  of  his  heir-apparent.  This  scheme  was  given 
up  only  when  Mary  was  contracted  to  the  dauphin  ; 
after  which  Edward  was  betrothed  to  that  prince's  sis- 
ter, Elizabeth  of  France. 

*He  was  usually  in  attendance  on  Prince  Edward,  his  cousin- 
german. 

279 


The  Nine- D ay s"^   ^ueen 

We  know  not  the  date  of  Jane's  residence  at  court, 
nor  the  length  of  time  it  continued  ;  but  we  have  some 
idea  of  the  kind  of  persons  whom  she  met  there  ;  her 
house  at  Bradgate  was  the  rendezvous  of  the  most  in- 
famous men  that  ever  disgraced  Christianity.  No  doubt 
she  oscillated  between  the  court  and  Bradgate.  Her 
father  constituted  himself  a  sort  of  protector-general  to 
a  set  of  vile  wretches,  who,  having  appalled  their  own 
people  by  their  crimes,  came  to  hapless  England  to  re- 
form the  Church : 

"  With  every  crime  they  stocked  the  nation, 
To  fit  it  for  a  reformation."  * 

Of  these  divines  and  their  English  compeers,  the 
acute  Bishop  Doyle  f  says:  "If  these  men  have  recon- 
structed the  Church  on  the  foundations  of  the  prophets 
and  apostles,  the  Manichean  system  must  be  true,  and 
the  evil  principle  has  prevailed  over  the  good."  "  They 
were,"  says  Dr.  Littledale,  a  Protestant  clergyman  of 
our  day,  "  utterly  unredeemed  villains."  % 

The  first  Christians  sold  their  lands,  and  gave  the 
money  to  the  Apostles  for  the  poor;  the  "reformed" 
English  —  especially  Jane's  relatives  —  stole  the  goods 
of  the  poor  to  enrich  themselves,  and  created  that  ter- 
rible evil  unknown  in  the  Ages  of  Faith,  and  with  which 
no  power  but  the  Church  has  ever  been  able  success- 
fully to  grapple — pauperism  —  a  word  hideous  in  the 

♦Ward's  Cantos. 
7  Life  of  Dr.  Doyle,  Fitzpatrick. 

X  Lecture  on  "  The  Characters  of  the  First  English  Re- 
formers." 

280 


The  N'nte- Days'    ^uccit 

mouth  of  a  Christian.  Jane's  grandfather,  Brandon  * 
was  infamous  even  among  the  courtiers  of  Henry  VIII., 
as  the  suppressor  of  thirty  monasteries.  Her  mother, 
with  the  rapacity  truly  worthy  of  a  niece  of  Henry 
VIII.,  contrived  to  become  mistress  of  almost  all  the 
Carthusian  property  in  and  about  London.  The  first 
Christians  had  but  one  heart  and  one  soul ;  no  two  of 
the  reformers,  English  or  foreign,  agreed  on  a  single 
doctrine. 

Historians  have  spoken  of  Henry's  queens  as  Cath- 
olic or  as  Protestant.  The  truth  is,  his  queens  and  his 
courtiers  were  of  the  religion,  or  phase  of  religion,  which 
the  new  pope  dictated.  Not  one  of  them,  after  the 
saintly  Catharine  of  Aragon,  ever  dared  to  oppose  his 
will.  If  they  had  done  so,  they  might  have  prepared 
for  martyrdom;  and  the  spirit  of  martyrdom  in  his  wives 
died  with  his  Spanish  queen.  It  is,  however,  certain 
that,  with  the  exception  of  Catharine  Parr,  who  died 
delirious,  all  the  women  whom  the  royal  pope  married 
sought  to  be  reconciled  to  the  Catholic  Church  when 
death  approached.  Henry,  indeed,  kept  the  title  f  he 
had  won  in  his  young  and  glorious  days,  but,  as  in  the 
case  of  Queen  Victoria,  %  his  successor  as  "  Head  of  the 
Church,"  it  might  be  asked  :  Of  zvhat  faith  was  he 
"  Defender  "  ?     Jane  knew  well  that  he  tied  Catholics 

*  He  died  while  Catharine  Parr  was  queen,  leaving  two  sons 
of  his  last  wife. 

t  Defender  of  the  Faith. 

jThe  question  was  recently  put,  in  Parliament:  "Of  -cvhut 
faith  is  Qiieen  Victoria  defender.?  " 

281 


The  Nine- Days'    ^ueen 

and  Protestants  to  the  same  stake.  Poor  Charlotte 
Bronte,  in  her  strictures  on  Julia  Kavanagh's  Women  of 
Christianity,  says  that  "  Protestantism  is  a  quieter  creed 
than  Romanism — it  does  not  set  up  its  good-  women 
for  saints,  canonize  their  names,  and  proclaim  their 
good  works."  I  am  afraid  the  quietness  of  Protestant- 
ism in  this  respect  is  akin  to  the  quietness  of  death; 
and  its  creed,  being  as  uncertain  to-day  as  in  the  days 
of  the  first  Anglican  pope.  Miss  Bronte,  though  eldest 
daughter  of  one  parson,  and  first  wife  of  another,  did 
not  undertake  to  explain. 

Lady  Jane  Grey  could  not  have  been  long  at  court 
without  learning  that  her  patroness,  Queen  Catharine 
Parr,  was  ambitious  to  add  the  higher  crown  of  author- 
ship to  her  matrimonial  diadem.  The  work  by  which 
this  lady  sought  admission  among  royal  authors  con- 
tains several  passages  worthy  of  the  picturesque  right 
hand  of  Cranmer: 

"Thanks  be  given  to  the  Lord  that  He  hath  now 
sent  us  such  a  godly  and  learned  king,  in  these  latter 
days,  to  reign  over  us,  that,  with  the  force  of  God's 
word,  hath  taken  away  the  veils  and  mists  of  error,  and 
brought  us  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  by  the  light 
of  God's  word.  .  .  .  Our  Moses,  and  most  godly 
wise  governor  and  king,  hath  delivered  us  out  of  the 
captivity  and  spiritual  bondage  of  Pharaoh.  I  mean 
by  this  Moses  King  Henry  VHL,  my  most  sovereign 
favorable  lord  and  husband,  one  (if  Moses  had  figured 
any  more  than  Christ),  through  the  excellent  grace  of 

2S2 


The  Nine- Days'   ^ueen 

God,  meet  to  be  another  expressed  verity  of  Moses's 
conquest  over  Pharaoh  (and  I  mean  by  this  Pharaoh 
the  bishop  of  Rome),  who  hath  been,  and  is,  a  greater 
persecutor  of  all  true  Christians  than  ever  was  Pharaoh 
of  the  children  of  Israel." 

The  woman  who  could  apply  such  gross  flattery 
to  Henry  VIII.,  "the  impersonation  of  evil,"  as  that 
monarch  is  aptly  styled  by  Mackintosh,*  was  a  fitting 
nursing-mother  for  the  "  miserable  apostasy  "  f  known 
as  the  Reformation. 

The  youthful  Jane  knew  perfectly  well  the  vicious 
and  cruel  character  of  the  crowned  wretch  whom  her 
patroness  thus  flattered.  She  knew  that  he  had  mur- 
dered his  late  queen,  "a  very  little  girl,":}:  and  still 
more  recently  butchered  his  aged  relative,  Margaret 
Plantagenet,  who,  with  the  lion-like  spirit  of  her  daunt- 
less race,  refused  to  lay  her  aged  head  on  the  traitor's 
block,  and  bade  his  minions  "take  it  as  they  could." § 

*  English  Hist.,  vol.  ii. 

t  Baring-Gould. 

1  Pari'issiina  puella  — HiLLES. 

^  Prescott  rather  innocently  observes,  in  his  Charles  V.,  vol. 
Ill,,  with  reference  to  the  Marian  persecutions:  "The  English 
being  remarkable  for  the  mildness  of  their  public  executions  (  !), 
beheld,  with  astonishment  and  horror,  venerable  persons  con- 
demned to  endure  torments  to  which  their  laws  did  not  subject 
even  the  most  atrocious  criminals."  The  fact  is,  there  was  not 
one  illegal  execution  in  Mary's  reign.  Parliament  made  the  laws, 
and  the  Queen  allowed  them  to  take  effect.  That  is  her  share  in 
the  persecutions  that  disgraced  her  reign.  But,  verily,  no  style 
of  killing  could  be  a  novelty  after  the  days  of  the  royal  Bluebeard. 
The   Countess  of   Salisbury   was  hacked   to   pieces,  Anne   Askew 


The  Nine- Days'    ^ueen 

Jane  was  old  enough  to  remennber  these,  and  a  hun- 
dred other  instances  of  his  demoniac  cruelty.  How  it 
must  have  blunted  her  sense  of  justice  to  hear  such  a 
monster  flattered.  As  to  her  moral  training,  she  was 
certainly  worse  off  at  the  court  of  such  a  woman  than 
she  would  have  been  with  her  unprincipled  parents. 

The    interest    which    Catharine    Parr   took   in   the 
young  Jane  Grey   must   be   considered   in  connection 

and  many  others  were  racked  and  burned;  several  were  boiled  to 
death  at  Smithfield.  See  Gray  Friars^  Chronicle,  printed  for  the 
Camden  Society,  1852.  Father  Middlemore's  flesh  was  torn  off 
with  red-hot  pincers,  the  cruel  executioners  searching  for  his 
heart,  which  the  martyr  told  them  was  "  in  Heaven,  where  his 
treasure  was."  "The  executioner,"  says  Pole,  "suspended  the 
embraces  of  that  fell  tyrant.  Death,  and  thus  prolonged  the  suf- 
ferings of  his  victims."  The  common  punishment  for  treason  — 
and  every  one  knows  how  easily  treason  was  committed  under 
Henry  VIII. —  was  so  horrible  that  nothing  more  dreadful  could 
be  devised.  Some  forty  years  later  than  the  period  of  which  we 
write.  Queen  Elizabeth  was  so  exasperated  by  the  Babington  con- 
spiracy (1586)  for  the  rescue  of  the  Queen  of  Scots,  that  she 
ordered  her  Council  to  invent  "some  new  device"  to  punish  its 
perpetrators.  But  Burleigh  informed  Her  Majesty  "that  the 
punishment  prescribed  by  the  letter  of  the  law  was  to  the  full  as 
terrible  as  anything  new  that  could  be  devised,  if  the  executioner 
took  care  to  protract  the  extremity  of  their  pains  in  the  sight  of 
the  multitude."  —  Letters  of  Burleigh  to  Hatton  —  Lingard. 
Does  Prescott  write  in  ignorance  or  in  malice  't  As  to  venerable 
persons,  the  English  mob  never  saw  any  more  venerable  tlian 
More,  Fisher,  and  the  Carthusian  monks,  whose  prior.  Father 
Haughton,  was  hanged  till  half  dead,  disemboweled  while  yet 
alive,  his  heart  cast  into  the  fire,  his  trunk  divided  into  four 
pieces,  and,  when  half  roasted,  sent  to  the  four  most  important 
cities  of  the  kingdom  !     O,  Prescott,  shame  ! 

284 


The  Nine- Days'   ^ueen 

with  the  darling  project  of  that  Queen,  who  desired  to 
perpetuate  her  influence  over  the  future  monarch  of 
England  by  providing  him  with  a  wife  in  the  person 
of  his  cousin.  If  Jane  possessed  a  tithe  of  the  qualities 
and  fascinations  with  which  posterity  has  endowed 
her,  she  ought  to  have  won  the  heart  of  the  princely 
boy.  But,  poor  girl,  scarcely  one  of  those  who  knew 
her,  loved  her ;  and  yet  her  more  unfortunate  con- 
temporaries, Mary  Tudor  and  Mary  Stuart,  had  quali- 
ties to  evoke  in  those  about  them  the  most  passionate 
attachment. 

When  Catharine  Parr  was  in  serious  danger  of 
being  added  to  the  list  of  Henry's  conjugal  victims, 
1546,  we  find  Jane  in  attendance  on  her  person.  Jane 
must  have  learned  on  this  perilous  occasion  how  deeply 
the  Queen  was  attached  to  the  Reformed  doctrines, 
when  that  frightened  mother  of  the  Reformation  saved 
her  head  by  disclaiming  all  theological  knowledge  but 
that  of  which  the  royal  wife-killer  was  the  exponent. 
When  Catharine  visited  her  sanguinary  master  on  the 
evening  of  the  day  which  had  almost  proved  fatal  to 
her.  Lady  Jane  Grey*  is  mentioned  as  carrying  the 
lights  before  her  mistress,  a  ceremony  during  which 
etiquette  required  that  the  candle-bearer  should  walk 
backwards,  facing  the  Queen. 

Catharine  and  her  ladies  had  been  borrowing  books 
of  an  unfortunate  lady  who  had  recently  left  her  hus- 
band to  preach  some  new  gospel.  When  Anne  Askew 
was  condemned  to  death,  the  Queen  and  her  party 

*  Speed's  Chronicle. 

285 


The  Nine-Days'   ^ueen 

were  terror-stricken  lest  the  poor  fanatic  might  men- 
tion them  as  her  disciples.  But,  with  a  nobility  of  soul 
which  deserved  a  better  fate,  Anne  guarded  their  secret 
even  on  the  rack.  Henry  was  terribly  incensed  against 
this  young  woman,  who  did  not  protest  exactly  in  his 
way,  for  "having  brought  prohibited  books  into  his 
palace  and  imbued  his  queen"  and  his  nieces  whom  he 
unceremoniously  calls  "  Suffolk's  daughters,"  with  her 
doctrine.  This  passage  would  seem  to  show  that  Jane's 
mother  and  aunt,  Lady  Frances  and  Lady  Eleanor 
Brandon,  the  Marchioness  of  Dorset,  and  the  Countess 
of  Cumberland,  were  at  court  at  this  time,  and  that 
both  were  disciples  of  the  hapless  lady  who  became  the 
scapegoat  for  the  royal  party. 

Anne  Askew  was  burned  alive.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence that  her  royal  friend  interceded  for  her,  or  indeed 
for  any  other  "  martyr."  In  the  midst  of  her  sombre 
honeymoon,  a  period  at  which  she  must  have  had  some 
influence,  three  Sacramentarians  were  roasted  alive  at 
Smithfield.  Some  of  the  worst  of  Henry's  bad  acts 
were  perpetrated  during  the  queenship  of  Catharine 
Parr.  With  all  the  changes  and  distractions  of  a  court 
life,  and  frequent  traveling  hither  and  thither,  Jane's 
opportunities  of  acquiring  learning  were  not  by  any 
means  propitious.  The  awful  death  of  her  redoubtable 
great-uncle,  Henry  VHL,  in  January,  1547,  wrought  a 
great  change  in  her  position  and  prospects.  Whether 
Jane  was  at  court  or  with  her  parents  at  this  period,  we 
have  no  means  of  ascertaining.  Catharine  Parr  was 
not  present  when  Henry's  appalling  death-scene  was 

286. 


The  Nine-Days''   ^ueen 

enacted;  and  it  is  possible  that  Jane  attended  her  in  her 
retirement ;  in  which  case  that  youthful  lady  must  have 
been  edified  to  see  that  the  royal  widow  engaged  her- 
self to  contract  her  fourth  marriage,  and  probably  con- 
tracted it  while  the  colossal  remains  of  the  first  Anglican 
pope  was  still  above  ground. 

The  will  of  Henry  VIII.,*  the  provisions  of  which 
were  known  only  to  his  council  and  queen,  placed  Jane  f 
immediately  after  his  daughters,  Mary  and  Elizabeth, 
in  the  royal  succession,  entirely  passing  over  the  pos- 
terity of  his  weak  and  vicious  eldest  sister,  Margaret 
Tudor.  Hence,  there  was  a  distant  prospect  that 
Jane  might  be  a  queen-regnant,  if  not  a  queen-con- 
sort. 

The  death  of  Henry  VIII.  was  "very  evil."  He 
continued  his  tyrannies  to  the  last.:}:  Harpsfield  and 
Saunders  mention  that  the  dying  monarch  evinced  an 
ardent  desire  to  be  reconciled  with  the  Church,  which 
he  had  so  barbarously  persecuted.  But  Henry  had 
slaughtered,  or  driven  far  from  him,  every  ecclesiastic 
who  would  have  dared  to  tell  him  the  truth.     The 

*"  Considerable  doubt  was  entertained  of  the  authenticity  of 
the  will  attributed  to  Henry  VIII.  Under  Mary  it  was  pronounced 
spurious  by  the  privy  council ;  by  Elizabeth  it  was  never  suffered 
to  be  mentioned." — Lingard. 

f'The  heirs  niasles  of  the  Lady  Frances,"  and  failing  these, 
of  the  Lady  Eleanor,  "but,"  says  honest  old  Spelman,  "the  name 
of  Brandon  was  clean  put  out  in  the  second  generation." 

J  "  Surrey  of  the  deathless  lay,"  was  his  last  victim,  and  the 
tyrant's  death  alone  prevented  the  execution  of  the  father  of  the 
poet,  the  aged  Duke  of  Norfolk,  and  of  Catharine  Parr  herself. 

287 


The  Nine-Days''   ^ueen 

murderer  of  More,  and  Fisher,  and  Forest,  and  Abell  — 
the  wretch  who  had  made  the  blood  of  God's  saints 
flow  like  water  —  deserved  to  hear  the  truth  no  more. 
His  gigantic  corpse  remained  above  ground  from  Janu- 
uary  28th  till  late  in  February.  On  its  way  to  Windsor 
it  was  laid  for  the  night  among  the  broken  walls  of 
Sion,  the  prison  of  the  young  queen  whom  he  had 
murdered  exactly  five  years  before,  and  then  were  ver- 
ified the  awful  words  of  Friar  Peyto,  who  had  compared 
him  to  Achab,  and  told  him  to  his  face  from  Greenwich 
pulpit,  "  that  the  dogs  would  in  like  manner  lick  his 
blood."  Blood  oozed  from  the  body  and  saturated  the 
pavement  of  the  dismantled  church,  and  when  the 
plumbers  came  to  solder  the  royal  cofifin  they  found  a 
dog  beneath  it,  which  lapped  up  the  blood  of  the  re- 
lentless tyrant.* 

Save  the  mother  that  bore  him  and  the  wife  who 
glorified  his  early  days  of  kingship,  no  woman  ever 
loved  Henry  VHI.,  except  his  daughter  Mary.  The 
boy-king  severely  censured  her  for  the  filial  grief  with 
which  she  bitterly  bewailed  his  woeful  end.  The  crown 
consoling  him  for  the  loss  of  such  a  father,  he  com- 
manded his  subjects  to  dry  their  tears  —  a  command 
which  they  could  not  obey  for  a  very  obvious  reason. 
In  his  capacity  of  Head  of  the  Church,  the  Pope  of 
nine  summers  informed  the  public  that  "a  prince  who 
led  so  holy  a  life,  and  governed  his  people  with  such 
justice  as  Henry  VHI.,"  was  sure  of  going  straight  to 
heaven ;  and  was,  in  fact,  now  enjoying  eternal  happi- 

*  Burnet,  The  Sloan  Collection,  etc. 
288 


The  Nine- Days'    Slticcn 

ness.  *  The  troublesome  and  tedious  ceremonies  of 
canonization  were  entirely  dispensed  with. 

Henry  left  two  widows,  his  Lutheran  queen,  Anne 
of  Cleves,  who  was  living  in  retirement  at  Richmond, 
and  ultimately  became  a  fervent  Catholic ;  and  his 
Protestant  queen,  who  at  once  provided  herself  with  a 
mate,  no  other  than  Thomas  Seymour,  the  vilest  profli- 
gate of  a  most  licentious  court.  Strype  informs  us  that 
she  rather  courted  him,  than  he  her;f  and  in  one  of  her 
letters  she  tells  him  that  she  would  have  married  him 
after  the  death  of  her  second  spouse  had  not  the  king 
stepped  between  them.  It  will  be  remembered  that  it 
was  during  her  second  widowhood,  of  two  or  three 
months  at  most,  that  she  adopted  the  views  of  the  Re- 
formers, and  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  Seymour's 
handsome  face  and  dashing  figure  were  the  agreeable 
medium  through  which  this  change  was  wrought  in  the 
religious  sentiments  of  the  gay  widow,  who  was  any- 
thing but  a  "  widow  indeed." 

Lady  Jane  Grey  seems  to  have  been  with  her  par- 
ents during  the  courtship  and  clandestine  marriage  of 
her  late  mistress,  for  we  find  that  as  soon  as  the  mar- 
riage was  made  public,  namely,  about  three  months 
after  the  burial  of  the  late  king,  Sir  Thomas  Seymour:}: 
offered  to  purchase  the  wardship  of  Jane  from  her 
parents,  he  and  his  wife  being  determined  to  marry  her, 

*MSS.  Harl. 

t  Ecclesiastical  Memorials. 

\  Deposition  of  Jane's  father,  the  Marquis  of  Dorset,  Tytler's 
Reigns  of  Edward  and  Mary. 

19  289 


The  Nine- Days''   ^ueen 

if  possible,  to  the  young  king,  and  thus  perpetuate  their 
influence  over  their  sovereign.  The  parents  of  Jane 
readily  acceded  to  this  proposal.  The  guardianship  of 
their  daughter  was  transferred,  "  for  a  consideration," 
from  them  to  Seymour,  and  Jane  was  again  domesti- 
cated with  Catharine  Parr. 

Seymour  had  a  double  object*  in  wedding  the 
frolicsome  widow  of  his  late  master,  i.  The  acquisi- 
tion of  the  wealth  which  this  prudent  lady  had  accumu- 
lated while  queen,  and  of  the  dowers  which  she  enjoyed 
as  widow  of  two  wealthy  lords  and  a  king.  2.  To  gain 
more  easy  access  to  Catharine's  stepson,  the  new  king, 
and  win  him  over  to  his  purposes.  The  chief  of  these 
purposes  was  to  thwart  his  brother,  the  Protector,  who 
had  just  helped  himself  to  the  royal  title  of  Duke  of 
Somerset,  and  who  was  eager  to  marry  his  daughter, 
Jane  Seymour,  to  the  young  king.  The  bold  move  of 
the  bridegroom,  in  obtaining  possession  of  the  person 
of  Lady  Jane  Grey,  and  purchasing  the  right  to  marry 
her  to  whom  he  would,  checkmated  Edward  Seymour 
most  provokingly,  and  fanned  the  flame  of  enmity  al- 
ready kindled  between  the  ambitious  brothers. 

One  circumstance  rendered  Catharine  Parr's  resi- 
dence most  unsuitable  for  the  virtuous  bringing  up  of 
a  young  woman.  The  princess  Elizabeth  was  domesti- 
cated with  her  stepmother  from  the  time  of  her  father's 
death.  Here,  indeed,  the  child  was  the  mother  of  the 
woman.     How  could  Jane  Grey  escape  contamination 

*  Pictorial  History  of  England,  a  voluminous  compilation  by 
Craik  and  Macfarlane,  vol.  ii.,  book  v. 

290 


The  Nine-Days^   ^ueen 

in  such  companionship?  Elizabeth  Tudor,  in  her  fif- 
teenth year,  was  what  she  had  not  ceased  to  be  in  her 
seventieth,  a  bold,  bad  woman.  So  far  as  can  be  ascer- 
tained, Seymour  was  the  first,  and  certainly  not  the 
least  infamous,  of  Elizabeth's  lovers.  The  fact  that  he 
was  brother  to  one  of  her  father's  wives  and  husband 
of  another — that  he  was  brother  to  the  woman  for 
whose  sake  her  mother  had  been  sent  to  the  block  — 
did  not  in  the  least  deter  Elizabeth.  The  fact  that 
Elizabeth  was  an  orphan,  a  daughter  of  his  late  king, 
and  sent  to  his  wife  for  protection,  did  not  deter  Sey- 
mour. Mary  endeavored  to  draw  her  sister  from  the 
ill-regulated  household  of  Catharine  Parr,  by  offering 
her  a  home  with  herself,  on  the  ostensible  plea  that  the 
queen-dowager  had  outraged  their  father's  memory  by 
her  hasty,  indecorous  marriage ;  but  the  daughter  of 
Catharine  of  Aragon  knew  exactly  how  matters  stood, 
and  endeavored  to  save  the  reputation  of  Anne  Boleyn's 
daughter  by  withdrawing  her  from  temptation.  But 
Elizabeth  preferred  the  license  of  her  present  home. 

These  disgraceful  amours  utterly  ruined  the  charac- 
ter of  Elizabeth,  and  rendered  miserable  the  life  of 
Seymour's  wife,  who  was  finally  compelled  to  send  the 
princess  from  her  house  a  few  months  before  her  death, 
which  occurred  in  September,  1548.  Elizabeth  is  the 
only  unmarried  princess  of  England  whose  conduct 
was  investigated  by  the  royal  council,  and  who  was 
compelled  to  write  a  "Confession"  of  her  misdeeds 
while  yet  a  mere  girl.  It  would  seem  that  intercourse 
between  the  vicious  pair  was  not  quite  broken  up  by 

29X 


The  Nine-Days^   ^ueen 

separation.  "  It  is  probable,"  says  Miss  Strickland, 
"that  the  alarming  change  in  Catharine" — after  the 
birth  of  her  only  child  —  "  was  caused  by  the  whispers 
in  her  lying-in  chamber  relating  to  her  husband's  pas- 
sion for  her  stepdaughter,  and  his  intention  of  aspiring 
to  the  hand  of  the  princess  in  case  of  her  own  de- 
cease." *  Nobody  seems  to  have  dreamt  of  removing 
the  youthful  Jane  Grey  from  the  contamination  of  such 
surroundings.  Her  parents  thought  more  of  the  money 
the  sale  of  her  wardship  brought  them  than  of  the 
morality  of  their  child,  then  at  the  tender  age  of  twelve. 
Surely  Seymour's  house  was  a  model  house;  it  was 
filled  with  English  and  foreign  reformers,  who  held 
divine  service  therein  two  or  three  times  a  day.  "  Sey- 
mour," f  says  Latimer,  "gets  him  out  of  the  way  when 
the  daily  prayer  begins,  like  a  mole  digging  in  the 
earth."  Verily  he  was  not  so  much  of  a  hypocrite  as 
those  who  attended  the  daily  prayer  and  led  such 
vicious  lives. 

Poor  Catharine  was  happier  even  in  the  lifetime  of 
Henry  VHI.  She  was  not  then  tormented  by  jeal- 
ousy, and  she  could  resort  to  her  literary  labors,  such 
as  they  were.  "She  spent  her  own  leisure  hours  in 
compiling  into  the  form  of  prayer  the  inspirations  of  a 
diseased  brain.":}:  Never  had  an  ill-used  wife  greater 
need  of  prayer.  Lady  Jane  Grey  remained  in  her 
household  to  the  end.     Having  given  birth  to  a  daugh- 

*Life  of  Catharine  Parr. 
+  Latimer's  Sermons,  first  edition. 
J  Audin's  Life  of  Henry  VIIL 
293 


The  Nine-Days''   ^ueen 

ter,  the  queen  died  delirious  eight  days  later.  Lady 
Jane  officiated  as  chief  mourner  at  her  funeral.  Sir 
Thomas  brought  her  to  Hanworth  when  all  was  over, 
and  such  was  the  favorable  impression  she  made  on  the 
heartless  widower,  that  he  deliberated  which  he  would 
select  for  his  next  wife,  the  Princess  Elizabeth  or  Lady 
Jane  Grey. 

It  would  be  strange  indeed  if  the  precocious  Jane 
acquired  either  virtue  or  learning  in  so  vicious  a  school 
as  the  licentious  household  of  Catharine  Parr.  Neither 
could  daily  intercourse  with  Seymour,  Elizabeth,  and 
the  immoral  apostates  on  whom  Seymour's  wife  lav- 
ished her  friendship,  have  been  at  all  beneficial  to  so 
young  a  lady.  If  Jane  were  "truthful  and  conscienti- 
ous,"* she  could  have  had  but  little  real  respect  for  her 
much-married  patroness,!  whose  duplicity  she  knew  to 
be  perfect.  She  was  aware,  too,  that  it  was  not  the 
virtuous  indignation  of  the  Christian  matron,  but  the 
jealousy  of  the  neglected  wife,  that  the  scandalous  be- 
havior of  her  wicked  husband  and  her  shameless  step- 
child awoke  in  the  breast  of  this  unfortunate  lady. 

Seymour  desired  at  first  to  send  Jane  home  to  her 
parents,  but  he  speedily  changed  his  mind  and  wrote  a 
second  letter  to  her  father,  in  which  he  evinces  the 
greatest  anxiety  to  keep  her.      Elizabeth  was  perfectly 

*  Strickland. 

+  While  Catharine  Parr  was  queen  she  used  to  attend  Mass 
with  the  king  in  the  morning  and  hold  Protestant  worship  privately, 
her  own  chaplains  officiating  at  both.  Jane  often  shared  as  well 
as  witnessed  her  deceit,  as  she  was  in  attendance  on  her  person. 

293 


The  Nine- Days'    ^ueen 

willing  to  marry  this  bold,  bad  man,  if  the  consent  of 
the  council  could  be  obtained.  To  act  without  this 
would  invalidate  her  title  to  the  crown.  That  Jane  did 
not  strongly  reprobate  the  heartless  conduct  of  this 
worthy  pair  to  her  late  patroness,  may  be  inferred  from 
the  fact  that  she  continued  on  excellent  terms  with  both. 

The  answer  of  Jane's  father  to  Seym.our  is  a  remark- 
able production.  "  It  bears,'"*  says  Miss  Strickland, 
"  no  token  of  the  imbecility  of  mind,  under  which  his 
partisans  have  been  driven  to  shield  the  reproach  of  his 
vices."  But  it  not  unfrequently  happens  that  persons 
who  are  imbecile  as  to  honor,  uprightness,  truth,  and 
virtue,  are  wonderfully  quick-sighted  and  clear-headed 
when  there  is  question  of  making  money. 

After  many  thanks  and  flatteries,  Dorset  goes  on  : 

"  Considering  the  state  of  my  daughter  and  her 
tender  years,  wherein  she  shall  hardly  rule  herself  with- 
out a  guide,  lest  she  should,  for  want  of  a  bridle,  take 
too  much  head,  and  conceive  such  an  opinion  of  herself 
that  all  such  good  behavior  as  she  heretofore  hath 
learned  by  the  queen's  and  your  most  wholesome  in- 
structions should  either  altogether  be  quenched  in  her, 
or,  at  least,  much  diminished,  I  shall  in  most  hearty 
wise  require  your  lordship  to  commit  her  to  the  guid- 
ance of  her  mother,  by  whom,  for  the  fear  and  duty  she 
oweth  her,  she  shall  be  more  easily  framed  and  ruled 
towards  virtue,  which  I  wish  above  all  things  to  be 
plentiful  in  her."  f 

*  Tudor  Princesses. 

■{■  State  Papers,  in  Tj-tler.     Hayne's  Burleigh  Papers. 
294 


The  Nine- Days'   ^ueen 

Here  follow  allusions  to  the  necessity  of  putting 
Jane  under  the  "  eye  and  oversight  of  her  mother  "  and 
"  the  addressing  of  her  mind  to  humility,  soberness,  and 
obedience,"  which  would  seem  to  show  that  she  was 
not  exempt  from  the  faults  and  foibles  of  other  girls. 
If  she  had  borne  anything  of  the  repute  of  a  saint  her 
father  would  not  have  written  in  this  strain.  His  ob- 
ject was  not,  however,  to  get  his  daughter  home  and 
place  her  under  his  wife's  tutelage,  but  to  drive  a  better 
pecuniary  bargain.  His  wife,  actuated  by  the  same 
base  motives,  joined  in  her  husband's  request,  and  Jane 
was  returned  to  her  parents.  But  it  was  no  part  of 
their  policy  to  keep  her.  Their  letters  to  Seymour 
bear  the  date  of  September  19th,  and  we  find  them  in 
London,  four  days  later,  negotiating  for  the  sale  of  their 
child.  They  received  ^^500,  the  first  instalment  of  her 
whole  purchase-money,  ^2,000,  an  enormous  sum  for 
the  time.  By  the  following  letter,  still  extant,  Jane  ac- 
knowledges the  Lord-Admiral  Seymour,  as  her  guar- 
dian : 

"  To  the  Right  Honorable  and  my  singular  good  lord,  the 
Lord-Admiral,  give  these. 

"  My  duty  to  your  lordship,  in  most  humble  wise  remembered, 
with  no  less  thanks  for  the  gentle  letters  which  I  received  from 
you.  Thinking  myself  so  much  bound  to  your  lordship  for  your 
great  goodness  towards  me  from  time  to  time,  that  I  cannot  by 
any  means  be  able  to  recompense  the  least  part  thereof,  I  pur- 
posed to  write  a  few  rude  lines  unto  your  lordship,  rather  as  a 
token  to  show  how  much  worthier  I  think  your  lordship's  good- 
ness than  to  give  worthy  thanks  for  the  same;  and  these,  my 
letters,  shall  be  to  testify  unto  you  that,  like  as  you  have  become 
towards  me  a  loving  and  kind   father,  so  I  shall   be  always  most 

295 


The  Nine-Days''   ^iiccn 

ready  to  obey  your  godly  monitions  and  good  instructions,  as  be- 
Cometh  one  upon  whom  you  have  heaped  so  many  benefits.  And 
thus,  fearing  I  should  trouble  your  lordship  too  much,  I  most 
humbly  take  my  leave  of  your  good  lordship. 

"  Your  humble  servant  during  my  life, 

"  Jane  Grave." 
Indorsed  :  "  My  Lady  Jane,  the  first  of  October,  1548." 

It  would  have  puzzled  Jane  Grey  to  explain  in  what 
consisted  the  goodness  of  Lord  Seymour  which  she 
lauds  so  highly  ;  and  the  "  Adonis  of  the  Court  ".  be- 
stowing "  godly  monitions  and  good  instructions  "  on 
his  young  ward,  places  that  gentleman  in  rather  a  new 
light.  The  letter  was  evidently  written  at  the  dicta- 
tion of  her  parents,  who  were  not  oblivious  of  the  fact 
that  Seymour,  by  the  terms  of  their  late  contract,  still 
owed  them  ^1,500  for  the  wardship  of  their  daughter. 

Lord  Seymour  came  at  once  to  Bradgate  for  Lady 
Jane.  He  would  take  no  receipt  for  her  purchase- 
money,  saying  merrily,  "  The  Lady  Jane  herself  is  in 
pledge  for  it."  "And,"  says  Miss  Strickland,  "  for  the 
vile  consideration  of  a  few  hundred  pounds,  the  parents 
of  Lady  Jane  Grey  saw  their  sweet  child  carried  away 
from  them  by  one  of  the  greatest  profligates  of  a  profli- 
gate court,  after  having  declared,  under  their  auto- 
graphs, which  exist  to  this  day,  that  he  had  no  one  in 
his  establishment  by  whom  her  education  was  likely  to 
be  properly  finished."  * 

Jane  continued  with  Seymour,  residing  now  at  one, 
now  at  another,  of  his  magnificent  seats.  In  the  win- 
ter he   brought  her  to  his   town    residence,  Seymour 

*  Tudor  Princesses. 

296 


The  Nine-Days''   ^neen 

Place,  where  she  came  under  the  influence  of  the 
notorious  Bucer,  from  whom  she  imbibed  the  Calvinis- 
tic  views  she  seems  to  have  retained  through  life.  The 
fact  that  Jane  was  allowed  to  have  any  intercourse 
with  this  wretched  man,  would  indicate  that  Seymour 
was  not  very  choice  as  to  the  persons  whom  he  allowed 
to  approach  her.  But  that  such  a  man  was  her  reli- 
gious monitor  is  preposterous.  Four  times  had  he 
stood  up  at  the  altar  of  Hymen ;  and  as  he  had  an 
extensive  domestic  establishment  to  maintain,  he  tried 
to  live  on  princes  and  princely  families.  He  may  be 
considered  a  patron  saint  of  Mormonism,  as  his  name 
is  signed,  with  the  names  of  Luther  and  Melanchthon, 
to  the  "Church  Dispensation,"  *  whereby  the  licentious 
Philip  of  Hesse  was  permitted  to  confer  the  name  and 
style  of  wife  on  two  women  at  the  same  time.  It  was 
the  public  boast  of  this  clerical  miscreant  that  he  had 
taken  oaths  and  vows  to  the  Most  High,  and  violated 
them. 

It  was  reported  about  this  time  that  the  Lord- 
Admiral  meant  to  marry  his  ward.  "  When  Thomas 
Parry f  was  conferring  with  Lord  Seymour  regarding 
his  marriage  with  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  he  proposed 
going  to  see  her."  Parry  "had  no  commission  to  say 
her  grace  would  welcome  him."  "  It  is  no  matter 
now,"  said  the  widower,  "  for  there  has  been  a  talk  of 
late ;  forsooth,  they  say  now  I  shall  marry  the  Lady 
Jane."      There  was  no  hope  of   marrying  her  to  the 

*See  the  whole  document  in  Bossuet's  Variations. 
t  Haynes  State  Papers. 

297 


The  JSTine-Days^    ^ueen 

young  king;  but  the  Protector  was  as  little  satisfied 
that  she  should  marry  his  brother.  He  applied  to  the 
Marquis  and  Marchioness  of  Dorset,  demanding  that 
their  promise  of  espousing  Jane  to  his  eldest  son 
should  be  ratified  ;  but  this  worthy  pair  had  not  as  yet 
received  the  whole  of  her  purchase-money. 

Speaking  of  his  ward  to  Parr,  Marquis  of  North- 
ampton, Seymour  said  r  "There  will  be  much  ado  soon 
for  my  Lady  Jane,  Dorset's  daughter;  for  the  Lord 
Protector  and  his  duchess  mean  to  do  all  they  can  to 
obtain  her  for  their  heir,  young  Hertford.  However, 
they  will  not  succeed,  for  her  father  has  given  her  up 
wholly  to  me,  upon  certain  covenants  between  us." 

Death  frustrated  all  the  ambitious  projects  which 
had  been  so  long  ripening  in  the  plotting  brain  of 
Thomas  Seymour.  Arrested  on  "  thirty  charges,"  he 
claimed  to  be  confronted  with  his  accusers.  But  this 
act  of  justice  was  denied  him,  and  the  bill  for  his  at- 
tainder passed  both  Houses,  almost  without  opposition. 
The  warrant  for  the  illegal  execution  of  this  unfortu- 
nate man  was  signed  by  his  brother,  Edward  Seymour, 
the  Lord  Protector;  by  his  sister's  son,  King  Edward 
VL,  and  by  his  friend  and  spiritual  adviser,  Cranmer. 
Latimer,  who  was  a  party  to  all  the  intrigues  of  Sey- 
mour, described  his  execution  as  an  act  of  justice, 
averring  that  he  had  led  a  sensual,  dissolute,  irreligious 
life,  and  that  God  had  clean  forsaken  him.  "  He  was  a 
covetous  man,  an  horrible,  covetous  man  ;  he  was  an  am- 
bitious man;  I  wish  there  were  no  more  in  England; 
he  was  a  seditious  man  ;  I  would  he  had  left  no  more 

298 


The  Nine-Days^   ^ueen 

behind  him.  He  died  irksomely,  dangerously,  horri- 
bly." *  One  scarcely  knows  which  to  reprobate  most, 
the  unnatural  brother,  the  cruel  nephew,  or  the  false 
friend,  to  whom  a  wicked,  and  perhaps  not  unrepentant 
sinner,  appealed  for  consolation  and  assistance  in  his 
last  awful  need,  and  who  should,  as  a  friend,  and,  still 
more,  as  a  minister  of  religion,  have  dropped  the  veil 
of  charitable  silence  over  the  mangled  remains  of  the 
murdered  reprobate  who  had  sought  his  ministrations. 

Sir  Thomas  Seymour  survived  the  consort  whose 
death  seemed  to  open  so  wide  a  field  to  his  ambi- 
tion about  six  months.  He  was  beheaded  on  Tower 
Hill,  March  20,  1549.  Among  the  charges  brought 
against  him  were  his  precipitate  marriage  with  Catha- 
rine Parr,  his  presumptuous  courtship  of  the  Lady 
Elizabeth,  and  his  design  to  marry  the  king  to  Lady 
Jane  Grey.  Jane's  father,  Dorset,  and  Catharine  Parr's 
brother,  were  the  chief  witnesses  examined  against 
against  him  on  the  last-named  point.  Jane  was  with 
him  at  Seymour  Place  up  to  the  moment  of  his  arrest. 

Jane  was  once  more  returned  to  her  parents,  who 
were  by  no  means  disposed  to  give  her  a  hearty  wel- 
come, being  extremely  dissatisfied  at  the  failure  of 
their  ambitious  schemes.  She  was  now  in  her  four- 
teenth year.  The  king  continued  quite  insensible  to 
whatever  charms  of  mind  and  body  she  possessed,  and 
there  is  no  evidence  that  her  iorvaQX  Jiana^,  the  son  of 
the     Protector,     renewed    his    suit.       Her    father    had 

*  Latimer's  Sermon  on  the  Bad  Life  of  Sir  Thomas  Seymour, 
a  most  uncharitable,  unchristian  production. 

299 


The  Nine-Days''    ^zieen 

already  offended  that  powerful  magnate  by  refusing  to 
have  her  contract  with  Hertford  ratified,  and  had 
recently  to  undergo  several  severe  examinations  before 
the  king's  council,  as  to  his  motives  in  selling  the  ward- 
ship of  his  eldest  daughter  to  the  king's  uncle. 

Whatever  learning  or  accomplishments  Jane  ac- 
quired were  probably  stored  up  at  this  period.  I  do 
not  see  how  she  could  have  devoted  any  regular  time 
to  study  while  at  court  with  Queen  Catharine,  or  while 
traveling  with  that  lady  and  her  fourth  husband  from 
one  magnificent  estate  to  another,  from  Chelsea  to 
Hanworth,  from  Sudeley  Castle  to  Seymour  Place,  in 
the  slow  and  ceremonious  mode  in  which  great  people 
moved  about  in  those  days. 

One  John  Aylmer  had  been  appointed  by  her 
father  as  domestic  tutor  to  his  children.  This  Aylmer 
is  described  by  Becon  *  as  "a  young  man,  singularly 
well  learned  both  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  tongues." 
Aylmer  was  an  immoral  man  and  a  hypocrite jf  his 
friend  Roger  Ascham  bore  a  similar  reputation.  No 
conscientious  father  or  guardian  would  have  allowed 
such  men  in  their  families;  still  less  intrust  young  girls 
to  their  care.  Poor  Jane  was  singularly  unfortunate  in 
her  friends,  and  in  those  under  whose  tutelage  she  fell. 

*  Becon  was  an  English  Reformer.  It  is  impossible  to  say 
how  often  ho  changed  his  creed.  The  Jesuit  Waterworth  styles 
him  the  "Prince  of  Scurrility."— Or/^/w  and  Development  of 
Anglicanism.  I  quote  the  Reformers  wherever  they  refer  to  Jane 
or  her  connections,  but  cannot  vouch  for  the  accuracy  of  their 
statements. 

tHatton's  Letter-Bag;  Archbishops  of  Canterbury. 
300 


The  Nine-Days'   ^uecn 

Aylmer  was  subsequently  made  a  bishop  by  Elizabeth. 
He  was  the  friend  and  companion  of  Fox,  and  the  cor- 
rector of  the  work  of  that  famous  and  infamous  mar- 
tyrologist;  "upon  which  account,"  says  a  panegyrist  of 
Jane,  "  we  may  read  with  greater  confidence  (?)  Fox's 
minute  and  interesting  account  of  her." 

Ascham  is  our  sole  authority  for  the  following  anec- 
dote, which,  if  true,  is  less  creditable  to  Jane's  filial 
affection  than  to  her  classical  tastes.  One  day,  having 
called  at  Bradgate,  he  found  that  all  the  family  had 
gone  out  to  amuse  themselves  in  the  park,  except  Lady 
Jane,  who  was  reading  Plato  in  the  original.  When 
Ascham  asked  her  why  she  forbore  to  join  in  the 
merry  pastimes  of  her  family,  she  replied  that  all  their 
sport  was  but  a  shadow  of  the  pleasure  she  found  in 
studying  Plato.  And,  growing  more  confidential,  she 
replied  in  answer  to  a  second  question:  "Good  Maister 
Roger,  I  will  tell  you  a  truth,  which  perchance  you 
will  marvel  at.  One  of  the  greatest  benefits  that  God 
ever  gave  me  is,  that  he  sent  me  so  sharp  and  severe 
parents  and  so  gentle  a  schoolmaster.  For  when  I  am 
in  presence  either  of  father  or  mother,  whether  I 
speak,  keep  silence,  sit,  stand,  or  go ;  eat,  drink,  be 
merry,  or  sad ;  be  sewing,  playing,  dancing,  or  doing 
anything  else,  I  must  do  it,  as  it  were,  in  such  weight, 
measure,  and  number,  even  so  perfectly  as  God  made 
the  world,  or  else  I  am  so  sharply  taunted,  so  cruelly 
threatened — yea,  presently,  sometimes  with  pinches, 
nips,  and  bobs,  and  other  ways,  which  I  will  not  name 
for  the  honor  I  bear  them  —  so  without  measure  mis- 

301 


The  Nine-Days''   ^ueen 

ordered,  that  I  think  myself  in  hell,  till  the  time  comes 
when  I  must  go  to  Maister  Elmer,  who  teacheth  me  so 
gently,  and  with  such  fair  allurements  to  learning,  that 
I  think  all  the  time  nothing  while  I  am  with  him.  And 
when  I  am  called  from  him,  I  fall  on  weeping,  because 
whatsoever  else  I  do  but  learning,  is  full  of  great  trouble, 
fear,  and  whole  misliking,  unto  me.  And  thus  my  book 
hath  been  so  much  my  pleasure,  and  bringeth  daily  to 
me  more  pleasure  and  more,  that,  in  respect  of  it,  all 
other  pleasures,  in  very  deed,  be  but  trifles  and 
troubles  unto  me."* 

Jane  and  "Maister  Roger"  must  have  been  alone 
when  this  conference  took  place;  she  would  not  have 
dared  to  speak  so  disrespectfully  of  her  parents  had  she 
been  attended  as  her  rank  required.  One  can  hardly 
believe  that  a  girl  of  fourteen  would  be  allowed  to  con- 
fer alone  with  a  man  of  Ascham's  character  or  position. 
The  young  lady  could  use  very  strong  language,  too, 
although  there  is  no  evidence  that  swearing  was  among 
the  accomplishments  of  her  girlhood,  as  was  the  case 
with  her  sometime  companion,  the  Lady  Elizabeth. 

*  The  Schoolmaster.  Ascham  is  said  to  have  written  this  book 
at  the  request  of  Sir  Richard  Sackville,  as  an  argument  against 
cruelty  towards  scholars.  His  friend  Ayhner  was  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don at  the  time.  Whether  Jane  spoke  so  freely  to  Ascham  of  her 
parents,  or  whether  Ascham  spoke  in  this  way  for  her.,  and  for  a 
purpose,  must  remain  undecided.  It  is  just  possible  Ascham  found 
Jane  S.n  punishment,  and  that  her  solitude  on  this  occasion  was  not 
through  love  of  Plato,  but  to  expiate  some  of  those  faults  for 
which  her  parents  were  accustomed  to  give  her  finches,  nips,  and 
bobs,  as  she  elegantly  expresses  herself. 

302 


77?^  Nine-Days'    ^ucen 

It  is  well  known  that  the  Reformation  was  forced 
on  England  by  foreign  soldiers  and  foreign  theologians. 
The  latter  class  found  a  liberal  patron  in  Jane's  father. 
His  house  was  their  home.     No  matter  how  despicable 
these  exiles  were,  morally  and  spiritually,  the  Marquis 
of  Dorset  allowed  them  to  mingle  freely  with  his  wife 
and  daughters.  The  material  aid  he  bestowed  on  them, 
they  repaid  by  the  most  fulsome  flattery  of  himself  and 
his  family.     In  the  letters  of  these  men  we  trace  some 
particulars  of  Jane.     She  added  music  to  her  more  ab- 
struse studies,  and  is  blamed  by  them  for  devoting  too 
much  time  to  it.     Her  passion  for  dress  gave  them 
much  anxiety.     Fond  as  Aylmer  is  said  to  have  been 
of  his  pupil,  and  cordially  as  she  is  supposed  to  have 
reciprocated  his  affection,  he  was  afraid  to  correct  her 
on  either  point,  which  argues  badly  for  the  sweetness 
of  her  temper.     He  writes  to  Bullinger  desiring  him  to 
admonish    his   pupil  as  to    "what  embellishment    and 
adornment  are  becoming  in  a  young  woman  professing 
godliness.     Moreover,"   he  adds,   "  I    wish   you  would 
prescribe  to  her  the  length  of  time  she  may  properly 
devote  to  music,  for  in  this  respect  the  people  of  Eng- 
land err  beyond  measure,  while  all  their  exertions  are 
made  for  the  sake  of  ostentation."     This  Zurich  Letter 
was  not  intended  for  the  eyes  of  the  Dorset  family, 
and    cannot    be    considered    at    all    complimentary   to 
Jane. 

The  wonderful  letters  ascribed  to  this  demi-royal 
lady  I  pass  over;  because  if  they  be  genuine,  of  which 
there  is  considerable  doubt,  it  would  be  impossible  to 

303 


The  Nine-Days'    ^tiee?i 

separate  the  productions  of  the  pupil  from  the  correc- 
tions of  the  master.  Sir  Harris  Nicholas,  who  has  in- 
vestigated the  matter  most  thoroughly,  assures  us  that 
there  is  no  ground  whatever  for  most  of  the  marvelous 
stories  which  have  been  narrated  of  Lady  Jane.  He 
doubts,  and  with  reason,  her  extensive  knowledge  of 
Greek.  A  young  lady  who  devoted  so  much  time  to 
dress,  and  to  the  study  of  music  "  for  ostentation,"  could 
not  spare  much  leisure  for  the  classics. 

The  deaths  of  Jane's  two  uncles  on  the  same  day,  of 
the  plague,  raised  her  parents  to  the  rank  of  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Suffolk.     A  severe  illness  of  the  new  duch- 
ess called  Lady  Jane  to  her  sick-chamber  at  Richmond  ; 
but  though  apparently  sick  unto  death,  she  recovered. 
One  longs  to  know  whether  Jane  roamed  through  the 
spacious   apartments  of    this  newly-acquired  monastic 
property.     If  so  she  must  have  met  a  sight  appalling  to 
any  one  who  possessed  the  slightest  nobility  of  soul. 
When  her  father  became  owner  of  this  suppressed  mon- 
astery he  found  in  one  of  the  side  chapels  the  embalmed 
and  unburied  body  of  poor  James  IV.  of  Scotland,  killed 
at   Flodden   Field.     Instead  of  giving  decent  burial  to 
the  remains  of  this  brave  and  unfortunate  monarch,  who 
was  moreover  his  wife's  uncle  by  marriage,  the  newly- 
made  duke  permitted  the  body  to  be  thrown  into  an 
old   lumber-room,  among  timber,  lead,  and  other  rub- 
bish ;  in  which  state  Stowe  saw  it,  as  he  informs  us  in  his 
Survey  of  London.    Jane  was  old  enough  to  feel  rightly 
about  the  indignity  put  upon  the  fallen  warrior.    If  she 
expressed  her  feelings  it  would  probably  have  availed 

304 


The  Nine-Days''   S^iieen 

nothing,  for  her  parents  were  thoroughly  base  and  un- 
principled. 

From  Jane's  childhood,  she  had  much  intercourse 
with  her  royal  cousin,  the  Princess  Mary.  Mary  was 
exceedingly  kind  to  the  younger  branches  of  the  royal 
family.  In  her  accounts  are  several  entries  of  presents 
to  "my  cousin  Jane,"  who  paid  many  visits  to  her 
formidable  kinswoman  during  the  latter  years  of  her 
life.  Sometimes  when  the  whole  family  of  the  Greys, 
consisting  of  father,  mother,  and  three  daughters,  vis- 
ited the  princess.  Lady  Jane  remained  with  her  after 
the  departure  of  the  rest.  At  the  Christmas  of  1551, 
festivities  were  kept  up  in  Jane's  family  for  nearly  a 
month,  during  which  the  Greys  hired  players  for  the 
entertainment  of  their  guests.  Jane  made  all  these 
" progresses "  on  horseback;  and  they  must  have  left 
her  scant  leisure  for  Plato.  In  the  spring  of  1552  she 
suffered  from  severe  illness. 

On  her  recovery  she  began  anew  her  correspondence 
with  the  Swiss  Reformers,  and  sent  a  present  of  gloves 
and  a  ring  to  the  lady  who  was  styled  by  courtesy 
Madame  Bullinger.  In  the  summer  of  1552  Jane  vis- 
ited her  royal  kinsman,  Edward  VI.,  but,  though  he  re- 
ceived her  kindly,  he  was  as  blind  to  her  charms  as  ever. 
Later  on  she  paid  a  visit  to  her  cousin,  the  Princess 
Mary,  who  presented  her  with  a  rich  dress.  "  What 
shall  I  do  with  it  ?  "  asked  Jane  of  the  lady  who  brought 
it.  "  Marry,"  replied  the  messenger,  "  wear  it  to  be 
sure."  "  Nay,"  returned  the  little  hypocrite,  "  that 
would  be  a  shame  to  follow  the  Lady  Mary  who  leaveth 
20  305 


The  Nine-Days''   ^ueen 

God's  word,  and  leave  my  Lady  Elizabeth  who  fol- 
loweth  God's  word."  *  Jane  knew  perfectly  well  what 
the  Lady  Elizabeth  was ;  and  the  Princess  Mary  was, 
perhaps,  the  only  woman  of  principle  and  uprightness 
with  whom  she  was  acquainted.  But  Mary  was  suffer- 
ing grievous  persecution  for  her  faith  at  this  period,  and 
Jane,  mean  little  creature  that  she  was,  found  it  per- 
fectly safe  to  strike  one  who  was  already  under  a  cloud. 

Another  incident  gives  one  a  still  worse  impression 
of  the  character  of  Jane.  While  she  was  on  a  visit  to 
the  Princess  Mary,  Lady  Wharton,  a  Catholic,  in  pass- 
ing by  the  chapel  door,  paused  to  make  a  genuflection 
before  the  Blessed  Sacrament.  Lady  Jane,  who  knew 
very  well  why  her  Catholic  companion  bowed,  asked 
"  if  the  princess  were  in  the  chapel,"  and  on  receiving  a 
negative  reply,  said,  "Why,  then,  do  you  courtesy?" 
"  I  courtesy  to  Him  that  made  me,"  was  the  natural 
reply  of  Lady  Wharton.  "  Nay,"  retorted  Lady  Jane, 
"  but  did  not  the  baker  make  Him?" 

One  of  Jane's  panegyrists  —  she  has  had  no  biogra- 
phers—  calls  this  a  "lively  sally."  The  wit  of  this 
"  sally  "  is  within  the  compass  of  the  intellect  of  an  or- 
dinary child  of  six ;  the  blasphemy  is  revolting,  and 
argues  an  irreligious  mind.  The  impoliteness  of  insult- 
ing Mary's  religion  in  her  own  house  is  a  poor  proof  of 
Jane's  "  extreme  amiability."  f  If  Jane,  in  her  numer- 
ous visits  to  her  connections,  could  deport  herself  in  no 
better  style  than  this,  it  is  no  longer  surprising  that,  in 

*  Aylmer. 

t  Burke's  Men  and  Women  of  the  Reformation,  vol.  ii. 
306 


The  Nine- Days'    ^ueen 

her  hour   of   need,   she  found  herself  friendless.     She 
must  have  had  a  peculiar  talent  for  making  enemies. 

These  anecdotes  are  recorded  to  Jane's  credit ;  but 
to  appreciate  rightly  the  audacity  of  that  young  woman, 
insulting  in  a  most  uncalled-for  manner  a  royal  kins- 
woman, double  her  age,  and  her  hostess,  we  must  not 
view  the  hapless  Mary  Tudor  by  the  lurid  glare  of  the 
Smithfield  fires.  At  this  period  Mary  was  known  only 
for  her  virtues.  Amid  the  most  extraordinary  and 
heart-rending  trials  and  temptations  that  ever  beset  a 
royal  maiden,  she  had  led  a  life  of  unswerving  integrity, 
every  day  of  which  was  marked  by  acts  of  kindness  and 
beneficence.  It  is  said  that  Mary,  having  heard  these 
"  precious  anecdotes,"  never  after  loved  her  cousin 
Jane  as  before.  Very  likely ;  how  could  she  love  or 
respect  a  young  woman  who  repaid  her  princely  hos- 
pitality with  gratuitous  insults  to  the  faith  for  which 
she  had  suffered,  and  was  still  suffering,  bitter  persecu- 
tions, and  for  which  she  would  have  deemed  it  an  honor 
to  shed  her  blood?* 

*The  above  story  is  related  by  Fox,  Strype,  and  Speed. 
Aylmer,  when  he  became  one  of  Elizabeth's  bishops,  relates  the 
former  in  his  Harbor  for  Faithful  True  Subjects.  He  tells 
another  precious  story  in  the  same.  Speaking  of  the  visit  of 
Mary  of  Lorraine,  Qiieen-Regent  of  Scotland,  in  November,  1551, 
during  which  Jane  appeared  at  court,  with  her  mother,  in  great 
splendor  of  attire,  he  insinuates  that  the  beauty  and  rich  apparel 
of  the  blooming  dowager,  and  her  train  of  Scotch  and  French 
ladies,  wrought  a  complete  revolution  in  the  already  too  magnifi- 
cent appointments  of  the  English  belles ;  and  he  adds  that  the 
Princess  Elizabeth  was  the  only  lady  about  the  court  who  was  not 
carried  away  by  this  evil  example.     "  So  that  all  the  ladies  went 

307 


The  Nine-Days''   ^ueen 

The  miserable  reign  of  Edward  VI.  was  now  draw- 
ing to  a  close.  Edward  Seymour  had  followed  his 
brother  to  the  block,  the  first  and  last  victim  of  an  in- 
iquitous law  which  he  himself  had  made.  Jane's  father 
joined  the  dominant  party^  now  headed  by  the  crafty, 
unscrupulous  Dudley,  who,  like  his  predecessor,  helped 
himself  to  a  dukedom,  and  is  historically  known  as 
Northumberland.  Jane's  family  removed  to  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  court.  They  lived  partly  at  Sheen  and 
partly  at  Gray's  Inn,  the  former  being  contiguous  to 
Sion  House,  the  favorite  country  residence  of  the  new 
duke.  As  the  Seymour's  were  in  disgrace  since  the 
violent  death  of  the  Protector,  it  is  not  probable  that 
young  Hertford  renewed  his  proposals  for  the  hand  of 
Jane;  neither  would  her  parents  have  bestowed  her  on 
the  impoverished  heir  of  a  fallen  house.  She  was  now 
in  her  eighteenth  year.  It  became  expedient  to  dis- 
pose of  her  in  marriage,  and  her  parents'  choice  fell  on 
Guilford  Dudley,  a  youth  of  nineteen  or  twenty,*  the 
only  unmarried  son  of  Northumberland. 

with  their  hair  frounced,  curled,  and  double  curled,  except  the 
Lady  Elizabeth,  who  altered  nothing,  but  kept  her  old  shame-faced- 
ness."  The  truth  is,  the  Qvieen-Regent,  having  just  lost  her  son, 
was  attired  from  head  to  foot  in  the  deepest  mourning,  as  were 
also  her  ladies,  their  very  faces  muffled  in  black,  according  to  the 
lugubrious  etiquette  of  the  French  court  at  that  period.  And 
Elizabeth,  not  relishing  the  contingency  that  the  ladies  of  the 
Grey  family  might  take  precedence  of  her  on  a  state  occasion,  did 
not  come  near  her  brother's  court  during  the  stay  of  his  distin 
guished  guest. 

*  Guilford's  elder  brother,  Robert,  is  said  to  have  been  born  at 
the  same  day  and  hour  as  Queen  Elizabeth,  which  Camden  attri- 

308 


The  Nine- Days''    ^ueen 

Jane  positively  refused  to  become  the  bride  of  this 
ill-mannered  boy,  and  consented  only  when  her  father 
and  mother  beat  her  into  a  reluctant  compliance. 
From  the  few  particulars  we  have  of  her  life  we  cannot 
close  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  she  possessed  no  firm- 
ness of  character,  and  could  be  beaten  or  scolded  into 
anything.  She  was  not  even  free  to  marry  young 
Dudley,  being  legally  contracted  to  another ;  and  if 
she  had  possessed  a  tithe  of  the  virtue  attributed  to 
her  she  would  have  suffered  death  rather  than  break 
her  faith  to  the  man  to  whom  she  had  plighted  it,  and 
who  actually  was  her  husband  according  to  the  law  of 
God,  insomuch  that  Queen  Mary  subsequently  treated 
her  marriage  with  Guilford  as  a  nullity. 

On  Whitsunday,  1553,  Jane  Grey  became  Jane 
Dudley.  At  the  same  time  her  sister  Catharine  was 
married  to  Lord  Herbert,  and  her  sister  Mary  solemnly 
betrothed  to  her  kinsman,  Lord  Grey,  of  Wilton,    Both 

butes  to  a  mysterious  conjunction  of  their  planets.  If  this  be  cor- 
rect, and  if  it  be  certain  that  Guilford  was  the  youngest  son  of  his 
parents,  he  could  not  have  been  twenty,  as  Miss  Strickland  states, 
when  he  was  married  to  Jane,  May,  1553.  He  is  the  founder  in 
Christian  countries  of  the  heathen  practice  of  calling  people  by 
surnames  in  preference  to  Christian  names.  This  custom  is  con- 
fined to  Englisli-speaking  countries.  It  was  only  because  North- 
umberland could  not  mate  Guilford  with  Lady  Margaret  Clifford 
that  he  selected  for  him  a  daughter  of  the  aspiring  house  of  Grey ; 
the  title  to  the  royal  succession  being  considered  better  than  that 
of  Jane  Grey's  mother  and  family,  as  her  (Margaret's)  mother. 
Lady  Eleanor  Brandon,  was  not  born  till  after  the  death  of  the 
ladies  whom  Charles  Brandon  styled  his  spouses,  previous  to  his 
lofty,  but  unlawful,  alliance  with  Mary  Tudor,  sister  of  Henry  VHL 

309 


The  Nine-Days'   ^ueen 

lords  deserted  their  ladies.  These  luckless  marriages 
were  celebrated  with  extraordinary  pomp,  much  to  the 
annoyance  of  the  populace,  who  evidently  thought  such 
gorgeous  nuptial  festivities  in  very  bad  taste,  it  being 
known  that  their  young  King,  who  was  related  to 
almost  all  the  contracting  parties,  was  then  in  a  dying 
condition.  Ill  as  he  was,  he  did  not  forget  to  order  the 
master  of  his  wardrobe  to  deliver  a  wedding  present  to 
the  young  bride,  who  did  not  object  to  it  as  on  a  former 
occasion,  though  it  consisted  of  apparel  far  richer  than 
that  which  Princess  Mary  had  given  her  out  of  her  pov- 
erty. The  dying  monarch's  gift  was  an  ominous  one. 
Cloth  of  gold  and  silver,  jewels,  rich  tissues,  all  from  the 
forfeited  effects  of  Jane's  murdered  father-in-law,  and  her 
imprisoned  mother-in-law,  the  late  Duke  and  the  Duch- 
ess of  Somerset.  Among  the  manors  and  domains 
granted  her  was  one  equally  ill-omened,  Stanfield  Hall, 
from  the  church  tower  of  which  swayed  the  blackened 
corpse  of  Kett,  the  Hospital  Monk,*  hung  in  chains, 
after  being  dipped  in  pitch  to  preserve  it,  and  clothed 
in  the  monastic  habit.  The  frightful  memento  of  the 
ruin  of  a  religious  house,  oscillating  forever  in  the  wind, 
must  have  been  a  weird  spectacle  for  a  youthful  bride. 
We  soon  find  Jane  with  her  mother  at  Sheen,  also  a 
suppressed  monastery. 

The  amiable  Agnes  Strickland,  who  has  written  so 
eloquently    of   the   loveliness    of    Jane's   character   in 

*The  body  of  the  brave  monk,  William  Kett,  dangled  from  the 
highest  tower  of  his  monastic  church  till  the  day  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth's death,  March  25,  1603. 

310 


The  Nine- Day s^    ^ueen 

domestic  life,  has  not  failed  to  inform  us  that  she  was  at 
continual  variance  with  the  members  of  her  own  family. 
The  case  was  not  altered  when  marriage  removed  her 
to  a  new  family.  The  same  authority  informs  us,  not 
noticing  the  inconsistency  of  her  statements,  that  Jane 
"  had  a  deep  dislike  to  her  husband's  father  and  mother ; 
she  dreaded  and  distrusted  the  one,  and  abhorred  the 
other ;  "  feelings  which  a  person  eminent  for  "  holiness," 
or  "extreme  amiability,"  certainly  would  not  have  en- 
tertained. Indeed,  we  have  this  under  Jane's  own 
hand,  in  a  letter  to  Queen  Mary: 

"The  Duchess  of  Northumberland  promised  me,  at 
my  nuptials  with  her  son,  that  she  would  be  contented 
if  I  remained  at  home  with  my  mother.  Soon  after, 
my  husband  being  present,  she  declared  'that  it  was 
publicly  said  there  was  no  hope  of  the  king's  life'  (and 
this  was  the  first  time  I  heard  of  the  matter) ;  and  fur- 
ther observed  to  her  husband,  *  that  I  ought  not  to  leave 
her  house,'  adding,  '  that  when  it  pleased  God  to  call 
King  Edward  to  His  mercy,  I  ought  to  hold  myself  in 
readiness,  as  I  might  be  required  to  go  to  the  Tower, 
since  His  Majesty  had  made  me  his  heir.'  These  words, 
told  me  offhand  and  without  preparation,  agitated  my 
soul,  and  for  a  time  seemed  to  stupefy  me.  Yet  they 
afterwards  seemed  to  me  exaggerated,  and  to  mean 
little  but  boasting,  and  by  no  means  of  consequence 
sufificient  to  keep  me  from  going  to  my  mother."  Jane 
evidently  resisted  the  entreaties  of  her  m^^ther-in-law, 
for  she  proceeds:  "The  duchess  was  enraged  against 
me,  and  said  that  'it  was  my  duty,  at  all  events,  to 

3" 


The  Nine-Days''    ^ucen 

remain  near  my  husband,  from  whom  I  should  not  go. 
Not  venturing  to  disobey  her,  I  remained  at  her  house 
four  or  five  days;"  a  great  concession,  considering  that 
these  domestic  altercations  took  place  during  the 
honeymoon.  She  carried  out  her  own  will  as  to  leav- 
ing her  mother-in-law,  for  we  find  her  in  Chelsea  a  little 
later,  and  dangerously  ill. 

Meanwhile  the  king,  whose  death  was  hourly  ex- 
pected, expired  on  the  sixth  of  July,  the  anniversary  of 
the  judicial  murder  of  the  greatest  layman  of  the  age, 
Sir  Thomas  More.  The  royal  boy,  at  the  dictation  of 
the  plotters  by  whom  he  was  surrounded,  left  the 
crown  to  Lady  Jane  Dudley,  entirely  passing  over  her 
mother,  Frances  Brandon,  through  whom  Jane  derived 
her  royal  descent  from  Henry  VII.  and  Elizabeth,  heir- 
ess of  the  brilliant  house  of  York.  Why  Lady  Frances 
was  set  aside  in  favor  of  her  daughter,  no  historian  has 
adequately  explained.  The  death  of  the  king  was  con- 
cealed for  four  days,  and  on  the  tenth  of  July,  Jane, 
having  come  by  water  to  the  Tower,  was  there  pub- 
licly received  as  queen.  At  Sion  House  she  had  al- 
ready received  the  homage  of  her  parents,  of  the  father 
and  mother  of  her  husband,  and  of  several  members  of 
the  council.  Ridley,  the  usurping  Bishop  of  London, 
harangued  the  populace  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  on  the 
illegitimacy  of  the  sisters  of  the  deceased  king,  and  the 
blessings  likely  to  result  to  the  country  from  the  pros- 
pective reign  of  Jane  Dudley.  But  his  bold  and  elo- 
quent words  evoked  no  enthusiastic  response  in  the 
multitude.      Their   hearts   were    with    the    persecuted 

312 


The  Nine-Days'    ^ueen 

heiress  of  the  crown,  not  with  the  triumphant  Grey 
and  Dudley  factions. 

Meanwhile,  Mary  Tudor,  whose  life  had  been  here- 
tofore so  retiring,  co  gentle,  so  benevolent,  now  that 
she  had  a  right  to  maintain,  showed  the  lion-like  spirit 
of  her  sturdy  race.  Her  proceedings  in  this  most 
critical  conjuncture  evince  extraordinary  courage  and 
prudence.  She  fled  towards  Cambridgeshire  with  her 
retinue,  and  was  sheltered  by  the  hospitable  Huddle- 
stones  during  the  first  night  of  her  perilous  queenship. 
Her  enemies  were  on  her  track.  Early  next  morning, 
but  not  before  she  had  assisted  at  Mass,  Mary  jour- 
neyed towards  her  house  at  Kenninghall,  some  say  in 
the  disguise  of  a  market  woman.  On  turning  her  steed 
to  cast  a  last  look  on  the  hospitable  roof  that  had  shel- 
tered her,  the  venerable  pile  burst  into  flames  in  her 
sight.  Her  enemies  thought  the  fugitive  heiress  was 
within  the  walls.  "Let  it  blaze  away,"  said  Mary,  "I 
will  build  Huddlestone  a  better  house."  The  present 
stately  mansion,  Sawston  Hall,  built  at  her  expense, 
remains  to  prove  how  magnificently  Queen  Mary  kept 
her  promise,  and  how  grateful  she  was  to  the  friends  of 
her  adversity. 

The  measures  taken  by  the  new  sovereign  from  this 
time  until  she  displayed  her  royal  standard  from  the 
towers  of  Framlingham  Castle,  are  matters  of  general 
history.  "  Had  Elizabeth  been  the  heroine  of  this  enter- 
prise instead  of  Mary,"  says  Miss  Strickland,  "  it  would 
have  been  lauded  to  the  skies  as  one  of  the  grandest 
efforts  of  female  courage  and  ability  the  world  had  ever 

313 


The  Nine-Days''   ^ueen 

known.     And  so   it  was,"   the  same   lady  generously 
adds,  "whether  it  be  praised  or  not." 

All  authorities,  or  nearly  all,  assert  that  Jane  re- 
ceived the  news  of  her  elevation  with  anything  but 
exultation.  In  the  letter  which  she  wrote  to  excuse 
her  conduct  to  Queen  Mary,  she  asserts  the  same, 
though  she  admits  that  she  at  once  (having  recovered 
from  her  very  natural  surprise)  accepted  the  position, 
saying:  "If  to  succeed  be  indeed  my  duty  and  my 
right,  God  will  aid  me  to  govern  the  realm  to  His 
glory."  Jane  threw  all  the  blame  on  her  mother-in- 
law,  which  was  rather  ungenerous,  as  that  lady's  hus- 
band had  just  had  his  head  cut  off.  Sharon  Turner 
will  not  acquit  her  of  all  blame.  "Jane  Grey  had  de- 
scended," says  he,  "  from  her  social  probity  to  take  a 
royalty  which  was  another's  inheritance,  and,  although 
importunity  had  extorted  her  acquiescence,  yet  her 
first  reluctance  gave  testimony,  even  to  herself,  that  she 
had  not  erred  in  ignorance  of  what  was  right ;  and  no 
one  but  herself  could  know  how  much  the  temptation 
of  the  offered  splendor  had  operated  beyond  the  solici- 
tation, to  seduce  her  to  accept  what  she  ought  to  have 
continued  to  refuse."* 

When  it  is  remembered  that  Jane  was  educated  to 
become  a  queen-consort,  that  she  knew  that  by  the  will 
of  Henry  VIII.,  only  Mary  and  Elizabeth,  last  surviv- 
ing members  of  a  short-lived  family, f  stood  between  her 
and  the  crown,  it    is  very    difificult    to  believe  in  the 

♦History  of  Edward  and  Mary. 

+  No  Tudor,  except  Elizabeth,  lived  to  be  old. 

314 


The  Nitie-Days'    ^ueen 

ignorance  of  the  laws  which  she  pleads  when  she  endeav- 
ors to  shirk  responsibility  of  her  doings  as  "  Nine-Days' 
Queen,"  on  the  shoulders  of  her  aiders  and  abettors. 
I  cannot  see  that  Jane,  judged  by  her  actions,  ever 
rises  above  the  commonplace,  though  she  sometimes 
falls  below  it.  I  say  nothing  here  of  her  personal  in- 
gratitude towards  Queen  Mary.  An  honorable  woman 
would  lay  her  head  on  the  block,  rather  than  be  guilty 
of  that  execrable  vice. 

The  public  occurrences  of  the  nine  days,  are  recorded 
in  general  history;  the  private  life  of  Queen  Jane  was 
disturbed  by  the  extravagance  of  her  husband,  who  in- 
sisted on  being  crowned  king.  Jane  soothed  him  by 
promising  to  make  him  king  by  act  of  Parliament, 
which  it  appears  she  had  no  notion  of  doing.  She  told 
two  of  her  council  next  day,  that  she  was  willing  to 
make  him  a  duke,  but  not  a  king.  Guilford,  however, 
swore  he  would  be  no  duke,  but  King  of  England.  He 
was  actually  called  King  Guilford  by  his  own  faction, 
and  in  several  foreign  dispatches.  It  appears  by  her 
letter,  already  referred  to,  that  King  Guilford  "  struck 
her,  and  swore  at  her  on  several  occasions  "  ;  also  that 
she  was  '■'■maltreated''  by  his  mother.  This  unfortu- 
nate young  woman  seems  to  have  been  utterly  incapa- 
ble of  winning  the  respect  or  affection  of  those  about 
her.  Not  one  of  her  cabinet  remained  loyal  to  her, 
while  her  much  maligned  rival  was  followed  by  many 
thousands  who  served  her  cause  at  their  own  expense. 
To  add  to  her  difificulties,  the  King  Guilford  business 
was  making  her  ridiculous.     Part  of  her  brief  queen- 

315 


The  Nine- D ay s"^    ^ueen 

ship  was  spent  upon  a  sick-bed,  poisoned,  as  she  chari- 
tably suggests,  by  her  unbeloved  mother-in-law.  In 
common  justice  it  must  be  remembered,  that  the  Dud- 
leys and  others,  about  whom  Jane  speaks  and  writes 
with  such  unchristian  bitterness,*  have  never  had  any 
opportunity  of  repeating  their  version  of  the  story. 

The  following  is  the  cautious  and  accurate  Lingard's 
estimate  of  the  Epiphany  Queen  : 

"  Jane  has  been  described  to  us  as  a  young  woman  of 
gentle  manners,  and  superior  talents,  addicted  to  the 
study  of  the  Scriptures  and  the  classics,  but  fonder  of 
dress  than  suited  the  austere  notions  of  the  Reformed 
preachers.  .  .  .  Modern  writers  have  attributed  to 
her  much,  of  which  she  seems  to  be  ignorant  herself. 
The  beautiful  language  which  they  put  into  her  mouth, 
her  forcible  reasoning  in  favor  of  the  claim  of  Mary,  her 
philosophic  contempt  for  the  splendors  of  royalty,  her 
refusal  to  accept  a  crown  which  was  not  her  right,  and 
her    reluctant    submission    to   the   commands   of   her 

*  In  the  succeeding  reign,  the  enemies  of  Jane's  brother-in-law, 
Robert  Dudley,  the  most  favored  among  the  favorites  of  Eliza- 
beth the  Unclean,  used  to  say  that  "  he  was  son  of  a  duke,  brother 
of  a  king  (Guilford),  grandson  of  an  esquire  who  was  put  to  death 
as  an  extortioner,  great  grandson  of  a  carpenter;  the  carpenter  was 
the  only  honest  man  in  the  family,  and  the  only  one  who  died  in 
his  bed."  Despite  her  many  promises  of  marriage  to  Leicester, 
it  was  said,  and  it  proved  true,  that  Elizabeth  would  never  marry 
so  mean  a  peer  as  Robin  Dudley,  noble  only  in  two  descents,  and 
both  of  them  stained  with  the  block.  This  Dudley  lived  to  have 
several  wives,  two  of  them  simultaneously,  whom  he  facetiously 
styled  his  Old  and  New  Testaments.  Guilford  Dudley's  family 
was  much  beneath  the  family  of  Jane  Grey. 

316 


The  Nine-Days'   ^iicen 

parents,  must  be  considered  as  the  fictions  of  historians, 
who,  in  their  zeal  to  exalt  the  character  of  their  hero- 
ine, seem  to  have  forgotten  that  she  was  only  sixteen 
years  of  age."  * 

We  could  wish  to  make  this  article  exhaustive, 
but  the  space  at  our  disposal  forbids,  and  we  must  pass 
over  the  better  known  incidents  of  the  "  nine  days." 
What  need  to  give  in  full  the  lengthy  proclamation  in 
which  "  Jane,  by  the  grace  of  God,  Queen,"  sets  forth 
her  titles  and  her  claims  ?  Was  she  not  rather  like  her 
ancestress,  Eleanor  of  Aquitaine,  "Queen  by  the  wrath 
of  God  "  ?  Mary  put  down  the  rebellion  almost  with- 
out a  blow.  Her  illustrious  grandmother,  Isabella  the 
Catholic,  could  not  have  adopted  a  more  prompt,  vig- 
orous, and  merciful  policy.  For  her  future  disquiet, 
she  forgave  almost  everyone  concerned  in  the  late  plot 
to  effect  her  ruin.  Even  Jane's  father,  who  had  borne 
arms  against  her,  Jane's  mother,  who  had  held  up  the 
train  of  her  usurping  daughter,  Jane's  Lord  Chancellor, 
Goodrich,!  who  had  sent  her  an  insolent  message  dur- 
ing his  brief  tenure  of  ofifice  under  Jane,  all  were  par- 
doned. True,  "Guilford  Dudley  and  his  wife  "  were 
tried,  and  pleaded  guilty  in  the  historic  Guildhall,  but 
it  was  understood  that  Jane  would  never  have  to  pay 
the  penalty  of  her  treasons. 

Charles  V.  advised  his  cousin  to  allow  the  law  to 
take  its  course,  but  Mary  replied,  "that  she  could  not 
find  it  in  her  heart  to  put  her  unfortunate  cousin  to 

*Lingard's  History  of  England,  vol.  vi. 

t  Lives  of  English  Chancellors,  Campbell,  vol.  ii, 

3^7 


The  Nine- D ay s^   ^ueen 

death."  The  queen,  whose  clemency  was  so  ill-requited, 
added,  that  Jane  had  been  but  a  puppet  in  the  hands 
of  Northumberland,  and,  knowing  well  that  she  had 
been  compelled  to  marry  a  man  with  whom  she  never 
could  be  happy,  took  the  earliest  opportunity  of  assert- 
ing that  she  could  not  legally  be  Dudley's*  wife,  as  she 
had  been  validly  contracted  to  another.  In  fact,  it  was 
not  possible  that  Mary  could  do  more  in  favor  of  her 
rival  than  she  did.  Jane's  prison  was  a  palace ;  she 
was  allowed  to  recreate  in  the  queen's  gardens;  and 
even  on  Tower  Hill  her  friends  might  have  free  access 
to  her.  The  Harleian  chronicler  records  that  he  dined 
in  her  company,  in  the  rooms  of  the  lieutenant  on  which 
occasion  she  remarked,  with  good  reason  :  "  The  queen's 
majesty  is  a  merciful  princess."  Her  remarks  on  her 
father-in-law  were  not  so  edifying.  His  head  had  fallen 
from  the  scaffold  a  week  previously,  "  but,"  says  Miss 
Strickland,  "she  had  not  yet  forgiven  him." 

♦Guilford  Dudley,  with  his  brothers,  John,  Ambrose,  Robert, 
and  Henry,  was  confined  in  the  Beauchamp  Tower,  a  military 
structure  of  the  twelfth  century.  They  were  allowed  to  take  exercise 
on  the  leads,  and,  except  in  the  case  of  Guilford,  their  wives  had 
access  to  them.  Robert's  wife  was  the  celebrated  Amy  Robsart, 
whom  Scott  has  immortalized  in  Kenilworth.  In  the  prison-room 
occurs  twice  the  name  Jane,  written,  perhaps,  by  one  of  the  Dud- 
leys who  suffered  so  much  in  her  cause.  It  is  said  to  be  the  only 
memorial  of  Lady  Jane  preserved  in  the  Tower.  As,  however, 
Jane  was  not  beloved  by  her  husband  or  his  family,  it  is  just  pos- 
sible that  the  name  Jane  was  inscribed  by  Guilford,  in  memory  of 
his  mother,  whose  name  was  Jane,  and  who  passionately  loved  her 
tall,  handsome,  youngest  son.  The  monument  of  this  lady  is  still 
to  be  seen  in  Chelsea  Church. 

318 


The  Ninc-Davs''   ^zieen 

Jane's  father,  with  his  brothers,  Lords  Thomas  and 
John  Grey,  were  soon  again  in  arms  against  the  sovereign 
who  had  so  recently  pardoned  them.  Suffolk  attempted 
to  purchase  his  own  pardon  by  betraying  his  friends 
and  even  his  own  brother.  But  he  had  put  it  out  of 
the  queen's  power  to  pardon  him  now,  and  his  daughter, 
who  had  been  a  sort  of  hostage  for  his  loyalty,  shared 
his  ruin.  Mary's  councillors  declared  that  revolt  and 
insurrection  would  never  cease  while  her  rival  lived,  and 
Mary  was  persuaded  to  sign  the  death-warrant  of 
"Guilford  Dudley  and  his  wife." 

Feckenham  procured  a  respite  of  three  days.  Guil- 
ford desired  to  see  his  wife,  a  wife  who  was  to  cost 
that  aspiring  youth  his  head,  the  queen  consented,  but 
Jane  declined.  I  would  like  her  better  if  she  had  grati- 
fied his  last  expressed  wish,  for  it  may  be  that  he  wanted 
to  ask  pardon  for  "the  blows  and  curses"  with  which 
he  had  afflicted  her  during  the  eight  or  nine  weeks  of 
their  married  life,  previous  to  their  imprisonment. 
But  even  misfortune  awakened  neither  affection  nor 
sympathy  in  this  ill-matched  pair,  at  least  not  in  Jane. 

Feckenham,  "the  amiable  abbot,"*  whose  charity 
to  the  poor  "allured  the  minds  of  his  adversaries  to 
benevolence,"  f  came  to  the  Tower  to  console  the  last 
days  of  this  unhappy  woman.  She  accepted  his  minis- 
trations, thanked  him  for  his  kindness  and  humanity, 
and  even  embraced  the  venerable  divine  X  on  the  scaf- 
fold, but  I  deem  it  impossible  to  say  in  what  phase  of 

*  Froude.  i-Camden.     Feckenham  died  in  prison  for  his 

faith,  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  X  Bishop  Godwin. 

319 


The  Nine-Days''   ^ueen 

Protestantism  she  died.  She  had  been  made  a  widow 
about  an  hour  before  her  death.  Crucifix  in  hand, 
Feckenham  stood  by  her  side  to  the  last.  Jane  wore  a 
black  cloth  and  velvet  costume  of  great  elegance.  She 
addressed  a  few  words  to  the  spectators,  saying  that 
she  most  justly  deserved  the  punishment  she  was  about 
to  receive,  for  allowing  herself,  although  unwilling,  to 
be  the  instrument  of  the  ambition  of  others.  She  con- 
fessed that  "  when  she  knew  the  word  of  God  she  neg- 
lected it,  and  loved  herself  and  the  world,"  and  thanked 
Him  that  He  had  given  her  a  respite  to  repent.  Having 
asked  the  prayers  of  the  people,  she  suffered  her  two 
maids  to  remove  her  outer  robe,  while  she  herself  tied 
a  "  fair  handkerchief"  before  her  eyes  and  besought  the 
executioner  to  dispatch  her  quickly.  She  had  just  re- 
peated the  psalm.  Have  mercy  on  me,  O  God,  according 
to  Thy  great  Mercy.  She  now  felt  for  the  block,  say- 
ing, "  Where  is  it?  What  shall  I  do  f  and,  being 
guided  to  the  spot,  knelt  down,  and  cried  out :  "■  Lord ! 
into  Thy  hands  I  comme?id  my  spirit.''  She  laid  her 
head  on  the  block,  but  the  five  minutes  allowed  for 
"royal  mercy" — a  period  of  horrible  suspense — elapsed 
before  the  powerful  headsman  did  the  deed  of  blood. 
At  one  blow  her  head  was  severed  from  her  body, 
about  noon,  February  12,  1554.  Guilford,  whom  she 
had  married  nine  months  previously,  was  beheaded 
on  Tower  Hill;  Jane,  on  account  of  her  royal  descent, 
suffered  on  the  green*  within  the  Tower.     Both  were 

*The  precise   spot,  nearly   opposite   the  door  of  St.  Peter's 
Chapel,  is  indicated   by  a  large  oval  of  dark  flints.     Here,  too, 

320 


The  Nine-Days^    ^ueen 

buried  in  the  church  close  by,  between  the  mangled 
forms  of  Anne  Boleyn  and  Catharine  Howard. 

Thus  perished,  in  her  eighteenth  year,  the  unfor- 
tunate Lady  Jane  Grey,  "through  her  own  want  of 
firmness  in  the  first  instance,"*  and  in  the  second  place, 
as  Stowe  justly  says,  "for  fear  of  further  troubles  and 
stir  for  her  title."  No  human  being  can  read  her  sad 
story  without  sympathy  and  regret.  It  is  hard  to  think, 
even  after  three  centuries,  of  the  fair  head  of  a  girl  of 
eighteen  rolling  from  the  scaffold.  Queen  Mary  regret- 
ted the  political  necessity  more  than  the  parents  and 
sisters  of  the  victim;  though  that  princess  was  not  one 
to  feel  repentant  for  doing  what  she  deemed  to  be  her 
duty.  The  weird  stories  of  the  bleeding  form  of  Jane 
haunting  the  royal  pillow  of  her  successful  rival  have 
their  source  in  some  lively  imagination.  Mary  was 
sorry  for  her  luckless  cousin,  but  I  doubt  if  she  ever  felt 
the  least  remorse  of  conscience  for  allowing  the  sentence 
of  Judge  Morgan,  on  "Guilford  Dudley  and  his  wife," 
to  take  effect.  Nevertheless,  I  am  heartily  sorry  that 
Mary  did  not,  at  all  risks,  continue  to  exercise  in  their 
regard  the  royal  prerogative  of  mercy.  Still  Jane's 
early  death  has  been  the  best  friend  to  her  fame. 

In  personal  appearance  Jane  was  not  grand  or  noble. 
Her  features  were  very  small,  her  forehead  so  high  as 
almost  to  amount  to  a  deformity,  but  the  expression 

Anne  Boleyn  and  Catharine  Howard  had  been  murdered.  The 
instrument  used  at  Jane's  execution  is  shown.  See  Baylej's  His- 
tory of  the  Tower  of  London. 

♦Flanagan's  History  of  the  Church  of  England,  vol.  ii. 

21  321 


The  Nine-Days'    ^ueen 

sweet  and  pleasing.  In  height  she  was  little  more  than 
a  dwarf,  and  was  therefore  accustomed  to  wear  gilt 
chopines*  (cork  soles),  which  elevated  her  about  four 
inches.  Her  dress  was  of  the  richest,  and  her  portraits 
show  her  rather  vulgarly  overladen  with  finery.  That 
in  the  Earl  of  Stamford's  collection  is  by  far  the  most 
pleasing.  Tytler  admits  that  "  Plato  left  his  pupil  leis- 
ure for  the  toilette^  All  her  portraits  represent  her 
older  than  she  was ;  but  much  unhappiness  checkered 
her  young  life,  and  pangs  of  the  heart,  no  less  than 
years,  leave  their  impress  on  the  countenance. 

Poor  Jane  Grey,  the  Epiphany  Queen,  the  Nine- 
Days'  Wonder,  how  little  have  they  studied  your  sad 
story,  who  paint  you  as  a  paragon  of  human  learning 
and  divine  perfection !  No  one  regrets  your  tragic  fate 
more  than  I,  but  truth  is  dearer  to  me  than  the  sweet- 
ness of  an  historic  memory. 

But  Jane's  mother,  was  ever  woman  so  tried?  Her 
daughter,  her  son-in-law,  her  husband,  his  brother  —  all 
fell  beneath  the  axe  within  a  few  days.  Could  anything 
console  her  under  such  bereavements?  Must  not  the 
life  current  have  frozen  in  her  veins,  and  her  heart 
turned  to  stone,  at  these  horrors?  What  wonder,  if, 
like  Rachel,  she  refuses  to  be  comforted ;  like  Niobe, 
weeps  herself  into  a  statue  ? 

Alas,  alas,  Jane's  father  was  scarcely  cold  when  her 
mother,  emulating  the  cruel  Henry  VHI.,  who  plucked 
"  his  Mayflower,"  Jane  Seymour,  before  the  blood  of 
Anne   Boleyn    was   dry    on    the   scaffold,  married  her 

♦Disraeli's  Curiosities  of  Literature. 
322 


TTie  Nine-Days^    ^ueen 

groom,  Adrian  Stokes,  a  youth  of  twenty.  "  Some  call 
the  Reformation  a  tragedy,"  says  Erasmus,  "but  I  call 
it  a  comedy,  because  every  new  scene  ends  in  a  mar- 
riage." Was  this  marriage,  certainly  one  of  the  most 
revolting  in  history,  a  tragedy  or  a  comedy  ?  The  be- 
headed Duke  of  Suffolk  had  been  Frances  Brandon's 
husband  from  her  sixteenth  year.  He  was  beheaded 
February  24th,  1554;  his  brother,  Lord  Thomas  Grey, 
March  8.  On  the  twentieth  of  November,  1554,  the 
mother  of  Jane  Grey  gave  another  heir  to  the  crown, 
whose  father  was  a  groom,  and  who  bore  the  plebeian 
name  of  Stokes !  Her  sisters.  Lady  Catharine  and 
Lady  Mary,  were  completely  neglected  by  their  mother, 
who  was  absorbed  in  her  young  spouse ;  but  Queen 
Mary  had  pity  on  these  desolate  girls,  took  them  into 
her  service  as  maids  of  honor,  and  lavished  on  them 
the  affection  denied  them  by  their  worthless  mother,  as 
they  bore  honorable  testimony  when  they  were  being 
persecuted  to  death  by  their  cousin,  Queen  Elizabeth.* 

*  Lady  Catharine  Grey  married  her  sister  Jane's  betrothed 
husband.  Lord  Hertford ;  Lady  Mary,  a  dwarf  and  deformed, 
married  the  largest  man  in  London,  Sergeant-Porter  Keyes.  For 
these  "  offenses  "  both  ladies  were  imprisoned,  and  died  state  pris- 
oners. They  were,  besides,  entirely  destitute,  their  mother  having 
bestowed  all  the  property  in  her  gift  upon  Adrian,  the  groom. 
Like  so  many  families  enriched  by  Church  plunder,  the  wealth  of 
the  Greys  did  not  reach  a  second  generation.  Henry  Grey,  Jane's 
father,  was  so  notorious  for  his  plunder  of  churches  and  monas- 
teries as  to  draw  upon  himself  the  animadversions  of  a  man  fully 
as  infamous  as  himself,  Thomas  Cranmer,*  who  besought  him  to 
cease  his  robberies  and  sacrileges.  Even  the  "  gentle  Jane,"  on 
her  marriage,  was  dowered  with  church  plunder, 

*  Strype's  Cranmer, 


THE    BATTLE    OF    THE    BOYNE   AND    THE 
SIEGES  OF  LIMERICK— 1690- 1691 

I 

|he  first  great  battle  between  the  Jacobites  and 
the  Williamites  occurred  July  1,  O.  S.,  1690. 
The  writer  stood  on  the  historic  spot  200 
years  after  that  strangest  of  battles,  between  sire  and 
son,  had  driven  the  one  forever  from  Ireland,  and 
almost  secured  to  the  other  the  crown  he  had  coveted 
since  the  day  of  his  marriage  with  his  uncle's  heiress. 
The  astute  and  ambitious  prince  married  his  cousin 
for  her  expectations,  not  for  affection.  Many  years 
elapsed  before  any  love  appeared  on  either  side.  His 
eye  was  always  fixed  on  the  throne  which  would  be 
hers  if  her  fair  Italian  stepmother  bore  no  son.  And 
should  it  come  to  her,  it  would  be  his,  for,  as  he  ele- 
gantly said,  later:  "He  would  not  be  his  wife's  sub- 
ject, nor  would  he  be  tied  to  her  apron-strings,"  From 
the  hour  of  his  marriage,  he  did  all  he  could  to  create 
or  foment  discontent  in  England ;  and  shortly  after  the 
birth  of  his  wife's  brother,  he  came  over  as  the  "  De- 
liverer." 

The  Boyne,  which  laves  the  southern  frontier  of 
Louth,  the  smallest  county  in  Ireland,  and  forms  part 
of  the  northern  boundary  of  Meath,  one  of  the  largest, 
rises  out  of  a  holy  well  in  Kildare,  and  is  named  after 
St.  Boyne.     Within    four   miles  of   its  mouth    is   the 

324 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyne  and  the  Sieges  of  Limerick 

ancient  town  of  Drogheda,  situated  in  two  counties  and 
two  dioceses.  From  its  heights,  or  from  the  splendid  via- 
duct that  spans  the  river,  may  be  seen  the  famous  field 
on  which  William  III.  was  victor  and  James  II.  van- 
quished. From  the  town  to  "  King  William's  Glen," 
north  of  the  river,  or  to  "King  James's  Hill,"  south,  is 
about  a  mile.  You  can  go  by  the  south  side,  cross  the 
bridge  at  "  the  field,"  and  return  by  the  Rampart  on 
Meath  side ;  there  is  no  mistaking  the  fatal  field.  It  is 
marked  by  a  massive  obelisk,  150  feet  high,  on  a  huge 
irregular  granite  boulder,  some  20  feet  square.  The 
date  is  in  the  Old  Style.  Other  nations  were  ten  days 
later.  Rather  than  "  quarrel  with  the  stars,"  they  fol- 
lowed the  Gregorian,  or  New  Style.  Obelisks  are  not 
common  in  Ireland.  An  ugly  one  marks  the  spot  on 
which  George  IV.,  the  next  king  who  visited  Ireland 
after  William  III.,  landed  at  Dunleary,  now  Kingstown. 
On  the  rocky  base  of  the  Egyptian  landmark  that  over- 
shadows the  Boyne  is  the  following  pretty  inscription: 

"Sacred  to  the  memory  of  King  William  III.,  who, 
on  July  I,  1690,  passed  the  river  near  this  place  to  at- 
tack James  II.  at  the  head  of  a  Popish  army  advanta- 
geously posted  on  the  south  side  of  it,  and  did,  on  that 
day,  by  a  single  battle,  secure  to  us  and  to  our  posterity, 
our  liberty,  laws,  and  religion.  In  consequence  of  this 
action,  James  left  the  kingdom  and  fled  to  France. 

"  This  memorial  of  our  deliverance  was  erected  in 
the  ninth  year  of  the  reign  of  George  II.,  the  first  stone 
being  laid  by  Lionel  Sackville,  Lord  Lieutenant  of  the 
kingdom  of  Ireland,  1736." 

325 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyne 

The  people  of  Drogheda,  a  most  Catholic  place, 
have  always  before  their  eyes  this  remarkable  pillar, 
which  says  that  this  battle  secured  to  their  country  her 
liberty,  laws,  and  religion.  Even  to  the  Williamites  in 
Ireland,  nothing  was  secured  till  the  honorable  capitu- 
lation of  Limerick.  Nor  were  the  liberties  and  religion 
of  the  people  restored  to  them,  even  partially,  till 
over  a  century  later.  And  the  laws  were  made  so  un- 
just, cruel,  and  repressive  of  everything  the  people 
gloried  in,  that  it  has  been  said,  and  not  entirely  un- 
truly, that  the  ordinary  idea  of  patriotism  with  the 
Irish  peasant  was:    "To  be  agin  the  law." 

II 

The  ground  towards  the  battlefield  is  varied  by 
low  green  hills.  Suddenly  your  horse  makes  a  quick 
turn,  and,  behold,  you  are  in  the  beauteous  valley  of 
the  Boyne.  Within  a  few  yards  of  the  obelisk,  the 
river  is  spanned  by  a  handsome  iron  and  stone  bridge, 
with  latticed  iron  sides,  painted  white.  Heavy  piers 
of  limestone  support  it.  Visitors  sometimes  record 
their  sentiments  on  the  dead  white  of  the  parapets. 
Every  available  spot  was  covered  with  pencil  scrib- 
bling. Some  sentences  were  patriotic,  others  affection- 
ate. Strange,  there  was  not  a  line  complimentary  to 
the  "glorious,  pious,  and  immortal  memory"  of  the 
peevish  manikin  whose  name  is  inseparably  connected 
with  the  sweeping  river. 

From  the  bridge  are  seen  some  fine  country  resi- 
dences.    Old  Bridge   House,  in   the  midst  of  smiling 

326 


And  the   Sieges  of  Limerick 

meadows  that  slope  to  the  water's  edge,  is  a  charming 
and  stately  home.  A  rising  ground,  thickly  wooded, 
leads  to  Donore  Hill  in  the  waving  plains  of  fertile 
Meath.*  From  this  height  James  viewed  the  contest 
he  shared  only  vicariously.  The  spot  on  which  the 
timorous,  irresolute  prince  stood,  in  an  ancient  church- 
yard sanctified  by  a  ruined  church,  is  marked  by  a 
group  of  ash  trees.  Further  off  is  Duleek,  whither  a 
part  of  his  army  retreated  after  the  fight.  On  the 
ancient  bridge,  built  1587,  some  of  his  cannon  were 
placed. 

Ill 

James  landed  at  Kinsale,  March  12,  1689.  The 
house  in  which  he  rested,  now  an  apothecary's  shop, 
has  little  to  distinguish  it  from  its  fellows,  save  some 
ancient  stucco  work.  In  Cork,  he  slept  at  the  Domin- 
ican Priory,  whose  site  is  now  occupied  by  a  handsome 
Convent  of  Mercy,  St.  Marie's  of  the  Isle.  The  Mayor 
of  Cork,  1688,  was  Patrick  Roche  ;  the  Sheriffs,  Messrs. 
French  and  Morough.  The  Mayor,  1689,  was  Dom- 
inick  Sarsfield  ;  the  Sheriffs,  Messrs.  Mead  and  Nagle. 
James  heard  Mass  at  the  Franciscan  Church,  North 
Side,  of  which  no  vestige  now  remains.  He  was 
supported  through  the  streets  by  two  Franciscan 
Friars,  and  followed  by  several  members  of  the  same 
Order,  in  their  brown  habits.  His  host  was  the 
Earl  of  Clancarty ;  he  created  Tyrconnel,  who  met  him 

*  It  is  said  that  one  acre  in  Meath  is  worth  two  acres  else- 
where, because  of  the  great  fertility  of  the  soil. 

327 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyne 

in  Cork,  a  duke,  and  thus  Frances  Jennings  became  a 
duchess  long  before  her  sister,  Sarah  of  Marlborough. 
James  was  the  first  sovereign  who  visited  Ireland  since 
the  Plantagenet  epoch.  Everywhere  he  was  received 
with  open  arms ;  his  early  reputation  for  bravery 
made  his  supporters  hope  they  had  a  king  equal  to  the 
emergency  that  had  arisen.  On  Palm  Sunday,  March 
24th,  he  made  his  triumphal  entry  into  Dublin.  As 
he  rode  through  the  streets  multitudes  cheered  him 
on  every  side ;  tapestry  hung  from  the  windows  of 
the  rich, —  the  poor  draped  theirs  with  blankets.  The 
season  being  ten  days  later  than  the  date,  O.  S., 
vegetation  was  advanced,  and  green  boughs  and  spring 
flowers  added  to  the  decorations.  A  solemn  Te  Deum 
was  sung  in  Christ  Church,  in  thanksgiving  for  the 
king's  arrival.*  His  Majesty  issued  a  proclamation 
convoking  a  Parliament  for  May  7th. 

It  has  been  acutely  said  that  James  II.  was  a  Catho- 
lic in  religion  and  a  Protestant  in  politics.  His  chief 
enemies  were  the  descendants  of  those  English  and 
Scotch  fanatics  for  whom  his  grandfather  had  stolen 
thousands  of  acres  in  Ulster,  and  the  Cromwellian  set- 
tlers, whose  chief  also  had  robbed  the  Irish  to  enrich 
their  enemies.  For  the  latter  spoliation,  the  "  merry 
monarch  "  made  scarcely  any  reparation,  preferring  to 
act  on  Clarendon's  infamous  policy  :  Humor  your  ene- 
mies ;  you  are  always  sure  of  your  friends.     Everything 

*  King  James,  while  in  Dublin,  attended  Mass  in  Christ 
Church.  The  Lord  Deputies,  or  Viceroys,  and  the  Lord  Mayor 
of  Dublin  used  to  be  sworn  into  office  in  Christ  Church. 

328 


A?zil  the   Sieges  of  Limerick 

James  could  do  to  lessen  his  chances  of  success,  which 
were  good,  he  did.  He  went  to  Derry  to  protect  his 
Protestant  subjects,  who  were  tolerably  well  able  to 
take  care  of  themselves  and  had  powerful  allies.  His 
General,  Hamilton,  had  almost  succeeded  in  taking  the 
city,  but  James  thought  his  conditions  too  easy.  Had 
this  unlucky  king  remained  in  France  and  commissioned 
others  to  fight  his  battles,  history  would  have  a  differ- 
ent tale  to  tell  of  the  Jacobite  wars  in  Ireland.  The 
only  ill  treatment  meted  out  to  him  on  Irish  soil  was 
bestowed  in  sight  of  Derry  ;  he  was  refused  admittance 
within  its  gates,  and,  to  add  injury  to  insult,  one  of  his 
contumacious  subjects  fired  on  his  sacred  person.  He 
returned  to  Dublin  to  meet  his  Parliament,  in  which,  to 
the  evident  disgust  of  Macaulay,  the  O' s  and  Mac  s 
predominated.  It  was  mainly  a  Catholic  assembly, 
natural  enough  in  a  Catholic  country,  though  this,  too, 
failed  to  find  favor  with  the  Whig  historian,  or  rather, 
romancist.  Parliament  was  held  in  an  old  Dominican 
Priory  occupying  the  site  from  which  now  arises  the 
massive  Four  Courts.  James  appeared  on  a  throne  in 
the  House  of  Lords  in  royal  robes,  wearing  a  crown.* 
He  thanked  the  Irish  for  remaining  true  to  him  when 
his  other  kingdoms  had  deserted  his  cause.  It  was  the 
last  Parliament  he  opened,  and  though  its  proceedings 

*  James  put  a  Catholic  Irishman,  Richard  Talbot,  Earl  of 
Tyrconnel,  at  the  head  of  affairs  in  Ireland;  this  was  one  of  his 
best  appointments.  Unhappily,  future  Viceroys  were  not  selected 
with  a  view  to  the  happiness  of  the  people  over  whom  they  were 
placed.  Qiieen  Victoria  and  her  advisers  have  not  yet  imitated 
the  liberality,  or  rather  justice,  of  the  much  maligned  James  II. 

329 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyiic 

may  not  have  been  acceptable  at  Westminster,  for 
which  the  Lords  and  Commons  of  Ireland  were  not 
legislating,  yet  some  wise  and  honest  measures  were 
passed.  Men,  who  for  a  century  and  a  half  had  been 
persecuted  for  their  religion  established  full  liberty  of 
conscience  for  all,  and  they  repealed  the  Act  of  Settle- 
ment, by  which  Cromwell  had  legalized  the  robbery  of 
the  lawful  proprietors  of  their  estates.  "  Though  pa- 
pists," says  Grattan,  "  they  were  not  slaves  ;  they  v/rung 
a  Constitution  from  James  before  they  accompanied 
him  to  the  field." 

Ireland  had  been  nearly  wiped  out  of  existence  by 
Cromwell.  Goldwin  Smith  says,  "  The  descendants  of 
the  Cromwellian  land-owners  became  probably  the  very 
worst  upper  class  with  which  a  country  was  ever  af- 
flicted." The  real  owners  were  wandering  about  in 
misery,  or  had  sought  refuge  in  foreign  lands ;  the  Res- 
toration brought  no  relief.  "  This  country  has  been 
perpetually  rent  and  torn  since  His  Majesty's  return," 
said  Lord  Deputy,  Essex.  "  Men  beaten  with  whips 
in  Cromwell's  time  cry  out  they  are  now  beaten  with 
scorpions,"  wrote  Bishop  French,  of  Ferns.  Since  the 
accession  of  James,  however,  Ireland  had  enjoyed 
peace,  and  shown  extraordinary  recuperative  power. 
To  aid  their  King,  the  nobility  equipped  many  military 
companies  at  their  own  expense;  the  country  had  been 
drained  of  its  men  by  transportation  and  incessant  war- 
fare, but,  "  there  was  life  in  the  old  land  yet,"  and  had 
it  been  possible  to  save  the  Stuart  King  from  himself, 
and  put  a  greater  soldier  like  Owen  Roe  O'Neill  of  an 


And  the  Sieges  of  Limerick 

earlier  era,  or  Patrick  Sarsfield,  who  represented  Dub- 
lin in  James's  Parliament,  over  the  regiments  hurriedly 
raised  by  McMahon,  O'Reilly,  Maguire,  Nugent,  and 
others,  and  let  James  do  what  his  successors  have  gen- 
erally done  since,  keep  far  from  war's  alarms,  Ireland 
might  have  been  saved  to  the  Stuarts.  In  justice  to 
James,  it  must  be  admitted  he  was  not  fighting  on  his 
own  element ;  the  qualifications  of  England's  greatest 
admiral  would  not  necessarily  make  him  successful  on 
land  service  ;  sailors  fighting  on  land  do  no  better  than 
soldiers  in  a  naval  engagement. 

IV 
William  III.  landed  at  Carrickfergus,  under  the 
walls  of  the  castle,  June  14,  1690.  The  stone  on  which 
he  first  set  foot  is  still  pointed  out ;  from  that  memo- 
rial to  the  Boyne  we  have  followed  his  trail.  Between 
Newry  and  Dundalk  two  or  three  hundred  of  his  men 
were  routed  by  the  Jatobites.  Several  skirmishes  dur- 
ing the  spring  had  resulted  mostly  in  the  discomfiture 
of  the  invaders.  More  than  half  of  William's  men  were 
foreigners;  he  distrusted  the  English*  and  feared  a 
reaction    in    favor   of   his    uncle.       Prince    George   of 

♦William  thoroughly  despised  the  English,  and  treated  Eng- 
land somewhat  like  a  conquered  province.  One  of  his  medals 
bore  a  shattered  oak  and  a  blooming  orange  tree,  with  the  legend  : 
"Instead  of  acorns,  golden  oranges."  Burnet's  inaugural  pastoral 
declared  that  William  and  Mary  reigned  by  right  of  conquest. 
Bently  published  a  book  entitled  William  and  Mary,  Conquerors. 
These  productions  gave  great  offense ;  Parliament  sentenced 
them  to  be  burnt  by  the  common  hangman. 

331 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyne 

Denmark  and  other  high  personages  he  kept  near  him, 
rather  as  hostages  than  aids.  His  well-drilled  stran- 
gers, representing  nearly  every  European  nationality, 
were  not  chivalrous  warriors ;  their  princes  were  wont 
to  hire  them  out  to  the  highest  bidder.  The  whole  in- 
vading force,  including  raw  recruits  from  England,  has 
been  variously  estimated  at  from  forty  to  fifty-two 
thousand,  double  the  number  of  the  opposing  army. 
Three  provinces  and  part  of  Ulster  kept  their  fealty  to 
their  old  king.  William  was  fighting  on  his  own  ele- 
ment ;  he  never  risked  himself  in  a  sea  fight,  yet  he 
scarcely  ever  won  a  battle.  Personal  bravery  he 
showed,  and,  however  unfortunate  in  the  field,  he  loved 
fighting,  and  was  more  at  home  in  the  carnage  of  bat- 
tle than  in  his  palaces.  Though  he  was  part  of  the 
dual  head  of  the  Protestant  Church  (1688-1694),  and 
posed  as  a  Protestant  hero,  he  was  a  Dutch  Calvinist 
by  profession,  and  hated  the  English  Establishment. 
His  behavior  in  church  scandalized  many,  even  among 
his  friends ;  he  carried  his  irreverence  so  far  as  to  keep 
his  hat  on  during  Divine  service.  He  probably  cared 
little  about  any  religion  ;  ambition  and  intense  devo- 
tion to  his  worldly  interest  held  religion's  place  in  his 
soul.  A  great  part  of  his  life  he  spent  as  hired  gener- 
alissimo of  the  ultra-Catholic  power,  Spain. 

William  was  a  man  of  mean  presence,  considerably 
below  medium  height.  At  the  Revolution,  his  pictures 
represented  him  as  a  giant  — a  piece  of  flattery  not 
without  influence  on  his  cause.  His  name  is  a  synonym 
for  bloodshed  and  religious  intolerance.      His  "pious, 

332 


And  the  Sieves  of  Limerick 

glorious,  and  immortal  "  memory  is  revered  by  Orange- 
men, of  whom  he  is  patron  saint.  Should  you  travel 
in  northern  Ireland  toward  the  great  anniversary,  you 
will  see  that  the  cottagers  take  special  care  of  the 
orange  lilies  that  set  their  gardens  aflame  — they  must 
be  ready  for  "the  walk"  on  the  I2th.  On  that  great 
day,  what  commotion !  gorgeous  flags  and  fiery 
streamers,  purple  banners  fringed  with  orange  or  gold 
—  poor  Catholics  bar  their  doors,  the  Orangers  are  out. 
The  men  wear  orange  sashes,  the  women  ribbons  of  the 
same  bright  color,  edged  with  blue.  High  above  the 
crowd  is  borne  a  portrait  of  "  the  Oranger,"  of  greatly 
magnified  proportions  —  there  would  be  nothing  im- 
posing in  a  genuine  likeness — on  a  white  charger 
crossing  the  Boyne.  The  procession  moves  on  ;  the 
horses  are  bedecked  with  orange  flowers  and  streamers. 
It  passes  under  arches  of  evergreens  and  orange  lilies. 
On  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  and  below  the  Indian 
Ocean,  the  same  has  been  seen.  The  eyes  are  regaled 
on  these  festive  occasions,  but  the  ears  are  not  neg- 
lected. Band  after  band  strike  up  Orange  music. 
Cheers  for  the  small  hero  of  Nassau  are  commingled 
with  groans  and  execrations  for  his  hapless  father-in- 
law.  No  Jacobite  now  lives  to  squeeze  oranges  at  the 
wily  stadtholder,  or  shout  "Confusion  to  his  hooked 
nose,"  but  the  moving  panorama  rarely  scatters  with- 
out bloodshed. 

Miss  Strickland  styles  the  foreign  mercenaries  of 
William,  "  the  wickedest  and  crudest  troops  England 
had  ever  seen  "  ;    by  this  it  seems  they  surpassed  the 

333 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyne 

bloody  hordes  of  Cromwell.  Schomberg's  chaplain, 
Dr.  Gorge,  describes  them  as  profligate,  licentious,  and 
wallowing  in  crimes  too  odious  to  mention.  While 
in  the  marshy  neighborhood  of  Dundalk,  many  of  them 
were  sick  in  the  sand  dunes.  James  might  have  anni- 
hilated his  enemies  with  the  help  of  the  pestilence  that 
was  decimating  them,  but  he  could  not  be  persuaded 
to  attack  the  troops  of  "  his  son."  This  provoked 
Marshal  Rosen*  beyond  endurance,  and  he  exclaimed, 
in  a  burst  of  indignation  :  "  Sire,  if  you  had  a  hundred 
kingdoms,  you  would  lose  them  all." 

V 

The  troops  of  James  retreated  to  the  Meath  side  of 
the  Boyne,  near  Drogheda,  from  whose  gate-towers 
floated  his  royal  standard  and  the  Flag  of  the  Lilies. 
William  had  been  only  two  weeks  in  Ireland,  but  had 
worked  energetically  from  the  moment  of  his  landing. 
Still  in  the  prime  of  life,  in  his  fortieth  year,  he  was 
everywhere,  attending  to  everything.  James  was  prema- 
turely old  for  fifty-seven.  William's  marauders  poured 
down  "King  William's  Glen,"  and  posed  as  "an  army  in 
battle  array."  From  Donore  Hill,  James,  surrounded  by 
some  French  allies,  viewed  the  unequal  contest.  "With 
admirable  courage,"  says  James,  Duke  of  Berwick,  "  the 
Irish  troops  charged  the  English  ten  times  after  they 
had  crossed  the  river."     But  James  11.  had  no  praise 

*  Lord  Wharton  boasted  that  he  had  sung  James  II.  out  of  Ire- 
land by  a  song  called  Liliburlero.  This  vile  doggerel  had  a  bold, 
catching  air,  which  was  sung  everywhere  and  whistled  in  the 
hearing  of  James  himself. 

334 


And  the   Sieges  of  Limerick 

for  these  "very  great  scorners  of  death."  **  If  love  be- 
gets love,  the  English  should  certainly  love  James  II. 
He  would  scarcely  have  been  pleased  had  he  vanquished 
them.  He  would  hardly  have  liked  to  see  his  English 
defeated.  They  had  persecuted  him  almost  from  his 
birth.  The  Irish  had  shed  torrents  of  blood  for  him 
and  his,  and  were  still,  at  terrible  odds,  fighting  his 
battles.  Yet  he  had  no  pity  for  them.  When  he  saw 
them  bearing  rather  heavily  on  his  countrymen,  he  cried 
out,  to  the  unspeakable  disgust  of  his  soldiers  :  "  Spare, 
oh  spare!  my  English  subjects!" 

Over  a  thousand  Irish  corpses  lay  stark  upon  the 
bloody  field  as  the  shades  of  evening  fell  on  that  bright 
July  day.  The  enemy  deplored  five  hundred  killed, 
among  them  Schomberg,*  and  many  wounded.  The 
defeat  was  due  to  the  miserable  King.  The  vanquished, 
though  they  had  fought  seven  hours  under  a  burning 
sun,  were  willing  to  continue  the  battle  if  they  could 

*  William  showed  great  grief  for  Schomberg,  and  a  funeral  at 
Westminster  was  spoken  of,  but  no  further  notice  was  taken  bj 
him  of  the  death  of  "  the  first  captain  in  Europe."  The  dean  and 
chapter  of  St.  Patrick's,  Dublin,  where  his  ashes  lie,  vainly  urged 
his  relations  to  contribute  towards  a  monument.  A  memorial  was 
at  length  put  up  by  the  church  dignitaries.  The  inscription  by 
Dean  Swift  says  that  Duke  Schomberg's  reputation  for  valor 
availed  more  with  strangers  than  ties  of  blood  did  with  his  own 
kindred.  Walker,  Bishop  of  Derry,  fared  worse.  When  the  King 
heard  he  was  shot  at  the  ford,  he  gruffly  asked:  "Why  did  the 
fool  go  there.?  "  Yet  to  this  fighting  parson  he  owed  Derry,  and 
perhaps  Ireland.  From  the  effigy  of  Walker,  on  top  of  the  Walker 
monument,  Derry,  the  sword  is  reported  to  have  fallen  the  day  the 
Emancipation  Act  received  the  royal  signature. 

335 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyne 

get  rid  of  their  unlucky  leader.  "  Change  Kings  and 
we  will  fight  it  over  again,"  was  their  pathetic  cry. 

The  domestic  miseries  of  this  British  Lear,  added 
to  the  premature  old  age  sometimes  seen  in  persons 
who  begin  life  too  early,  and  the  injury  done  him  phy- 
sically by  severe  attacks  of  sanguineous  apoplexy,  may 
have  partially  unbalanced  the  royal  mind  ;  the  action  of 
James  after  his  expulsion,  was  often  the  action  of  a 
maniac.  On  this  fatal  day,  he  fled  before  the  battle  was 
over,  gained  Dublin  in  an  incredibly  short  time,  and, 
with  base  ingratitude  (if  he  were  in  his  senses),  charged 
the  Irish  with  cowardice.  "  The  Irish,  Madame,  can  run 
very  fast,"  said  the  royal  fugitive  to  Lady  Tyrconnel, 
who  came  down  the  castle  stair-case  to  meet  him.  "  In 
this,"  she  retorted,  "your  Majesty  surpasses  them,  for 
you  have  won  the  race."  It  was  the  first  battle  ever 
James  lost.  He  embarked  for  France  at  Waterford, 
leaving  his  faithful  Irish  to  continue  the  war.* 

When  "Mary,  the  Daughter,"  heard  of  her  husband's 
success,  she  wrote  him  a  letter  with  the  following  pass- 
age, showing  that,  though  she  had  violated  the  fourth 
commandment,  she  had  some  zeal  for  her  own  religion : 
"  I  have  desired  to  beg  that  you  be  not  too  quick  in 
parting  with  confiscated  estates,  but  consider  whether 
you  will  not  keep  some  for  public  schools  to  instruct 
the  poor  Irish.     I  must  need  say  I  think  you  would  do 

*  O'Halloran,  almost  a  contemporary,  says  that  it  was  by  means 
of  a  barter  trade  with  France,  in  which  the  Irish  gave  their  wool, 
hides,  tallow,  and  butter,  for  powder,  ball,  and  arms,  that  the  war 
was  so  long  maintained  against  William. 

336 


And  the   Sieges  of  Lu)ier'tc/c 

very  well  if  you  would  consider  what  care  can  be  taken 
of  the  poor  souls  there  ;  and,  indeed,  if  you  give  me 
leave,  I  must  tell  you  the  wonderful  deliverance  and 
success  you  have  had  should  oblige  you  to  think  upon 
doing  what  you  can  for  the  advancement  of  the  true 
religion  and  promoting  the  gospel." 

William  never  made  the  slightest  reparation  for  the 
atrocities  he  inflicted  on  Ireland.  The  estates  referred 
to  he  gave  to  the  infamous  Elizabeth  Villiers,  who  had, 
even  in  the  honeymoon  of  the  Orange  nuptials,  sup- 
planted the  beautiful  Mary  in  his  affections.  The  Irish 
would  not  have  accepted  such  "true  religion"  as  "the 
daughter"  proposed  to  give.  But,  strange  to  say,  fif- 
teen years  after  Mary's  death,  "  the  Villiers,"  who  had 
meanwhile  become  Countess  of  Orkney,  founded  a  school 
in  Middletown,  Cork  (1709),  for  the  education  of  the 
poor  children  in  the  Protestant  religion,  and  endowed 
it  with  some  of  the  above  estates.  They  had  been 
leased  by  King  James  at  ;^200  a  year  to  Sir  Richard 
Mead  and  William  North,  Esq.,  being  part  of  his  pri- 
vate fortune,  inherited  from  the  earls  of  Clare  and  Ul- 
ster. The  magnanimous  William  and  Mary  seized  the 
property,  as  they  did  the  very  furniture  and  clothing  of 
their  desolate  father  and  his  saintly  queen. 

VI 

Ireland  had  been  "  brayed  in  a  mortar."    There 
were  people  living,  in  a  country  always  famous  for  the 
number  attaining  longevity,  who  remembered  the  ter- 
rible bloodshed  and  planting  of  James  I.,  the  stand  made 
"  337 


The   Battle  of  the  Boyne 

for  his  son,  when  driven  out  by  the  English  and  sold  for 
a  groat  by  the  Scotch,  and  the  Cromwellian  massacre  of 
forty  years  previous.  In  the  tragic  and  pathetic  story 
of  the  century  there  was  little  to  remember  but  wars 
and  rumors  of  wars,  and  the  perpetual  warfare  the 
people  waged  for  religion  and  liberty.  Of  the  space  be- 
tween 1641  and  1652,  Sir  William  Petty  says:  "If  Ire- 
land had  continued  in  peace  for  said  eleven  years,  the 
1,466,000  (population  in  1641)  had  increased  by  gener- 
ations in  that  time  to  73,000,  making  in  all  1,539,000, 
which  were  brought  by  wars  (1652),  to  850,000,  so  that 
698,000  souls  were  lost,  for  whose  blood  somebody  must 
answer  to  God  and  the  King." 

The  recuperative  powers  of  Ireland  were  literally 
enormous.  In  an  account  of  Rinuccini's*  sojourn  in 
Ireland  (1645- 1649),  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the 
Irish  College  in  Rome, the  writer  says :  "  Families  are  very 
large.  Some  have  as  many  as  thirty  children,  all  living, 
and  the  number  of  those  who  have  from  fifteen  to  twenty 
is  immense.  All  these  children  are  handsome,  tall  and 
robust."  The  same  unimpeachable  authority  mentions 
the  extraordinary  beauty  of  the  women,  their  elegant 
manners,  the  superb  entertainments  given,  the  comeli- 
ness and  strength  of  the  men,  the  cheerfulness  with 
which  they  bore  every  species  of  hardship.  The  de- 
scription given  in  the  Rinuccini  papers  of  the  fish,  flesh, 
Spanish  and  French  wines,  excellent  milk  and  butter, 

*  John  Baptiste  Rinuccini,  Archbishop  of  Fermo,  was  sent  to 
Ireland  as  nuncio- extraordinary  by  Pope  Innocent  X.,  with  a  sup- 
ply of  arms  and  money. 

338 


And  the   Sieges  of  Limerick 

apples,  pears,  plums,  and  "  all  eatables  "  served  to  the 
Archbishop  and  his  retinue,*  is  entirely  at  variance 
with  Macaulay's  words  on  the  same  subject.  And  both 
describe  the  state  of  things  when  the  country  was  in 
her  chronic  condition  —  war.  The  papers  mention  with 
evident  admiration,  that  the  Irish,  even  in  remote  places, 
were  thoroughly  instructed  in  their  religion,  respectful 
to  the  clergy,  and  enthusiastically  devoted  to  the 
Pope. 

After  the  Boyne  success,  William  III.  repaired  to 
Dublin,  where  he  was  cordially  welcomed  by  the  Prot- 
estants, now  relieved  from  their  agonizing  fears  that  the 
Catholics  might  retaliate  on  them  the  cruelties  they 
had  remorselessly  inflicted  on  the  Catholics.  Special 
thanksgiving  was  made  for  the  victory  which  gave 
England  a  national  debt  and  increased  religious  ani- 
mosity a  hundredfold.     Sunday,  July  6th,  William  rode 

*The  diet,  housing,  and  clothes  is  much  the  same  as  in  Eng- 
land; nor  is  French  elegance  unknown  to  many  of  them,  nor  the 
French  and  Latin  tongues.  Political  Anatomy  of  Ireland  —  Sir 
William  Petty.  "  What  an  an.swer  to  Lord  Macaulay,"  is  Maur- 
ice Lenihan's  comment. 

Mr.  Lenihan  quotes  a  curious  letter  of  Captain  Taylor,  who 
sends  to  the  camp  near  Limerick,  August  20,  1690,  "all  this  poor 
country  can  afford,  and  all  that  is  left  worth  his  Majesty's  eating 
."  "  one  veale,  10  fat  wethers,  12  chickinges,  2  dussen  of  frest 
butter,  a  thick  cheese  and  a  thin  one,  10  loaves  of  bread,  a  dussen 
and  a  half  of  pidgeons ;  12  bottles  of  ale,  half  a  barrel  of  small  ale, 
some  kidnie  beans."  "  We  are  strongly  of  opinion,"  comments 
Mr.  Lenihan,  "  that  no  French  cuisinicr  could  provide  a  daintier 
feast  for  Royalty  than  did  Captain  Taylor,  under  the  circum- 
stances, provide  for  William  III.,  while  he  lay  before  Limerick." 

339 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyne 

in  state  to  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral.  The  spot  in  the 
choir  is  still  shown  on  which  he  stood,  with  his  uncle's 
crown  on  his  head,  to  give  thanks  for  the  success  of  his 
ambitious  schemes.  From  that  day  the  Cathedrals  of 
Dublin,  Christ  Church  and  St.  Patrick's,  two  of  the 
most  beautiful  churches  in  Christendom,  and  rich  be- 
yond the  power  of  words  to  describe  in  religious  and 
historic  associations,  have  been  in  possession  of  the 
alien  church.  Catholics,  within  the  memory  of  man, 
were  obliged  to  worship,  in  peril  of  their  lives,  in  a  new 
form  of  catacombs.  Schomberg's  tablet  is  in  the  chancel 
of  St.  Patrick's.  Swift  reposes  not  far  off.  Near  him 
is  Stella's  last  resting-place.  What  a  cloud  of  witnesses 
arises  from  the  grave  and  surrounds  one  in  this  vener- 
able spot.  Stella  came  from  the  household  of  Sir  Wil- 
liam Temple,  friend  of  William  III.,  and  the  King 
knew  Swift  and  offered  him  a  post  in  "the  army.  But 
what  are  the  historical  to  the  religious  associations  of  a 
temple  sanctified  by  the  presence  of  saints?  The 
French  allies  retreated  westward,  the  Irish  were  gath- 
ering near  the  mouth  of  the  Shannon.  William  turned 
his  face  towards  Limerick,  the  Jacobite  metropolis  of 
Ireland.  The  eccentric  little  Lauzan,  whose  selec- 
tion by  James  and  his  Queen  for  a  high  post  in 
their  army  was  a  wretched  mistake,  was  eager  to 
return  to  France  with  the  remnants  of  the  Red,  Blue, 
and  White  regiments,  and  they  were  easily  spared.  If 
Macaulay's  accounts  of  them  be  true,  they  were  some 
of  the  poorest  warriors  that  ever  cumbered  Irish 
ground. 

340 


j\in/  Ike    Sieges   oj'  Liiiierirk 

VII 

Forty  days  after  the  Battle  of  the  Boyne,  William 
appeared  before  Limerick,  whose  walls,  Lauzan  said, 
could  be  battered  down  with  roasted  apples.  Limerick 
was  a  pretty  town,  and  made  a  fine  appearance  from  the 
river.  Some  forty  years  previous  it  had  been  the  scene 
of  many  tragic  and  pathetic  incidents,  when  besieged 
by  Cromwellian  warriors  under  Ireton,*  son-in-law  of 
the  ferocious  Protector.  Pestilence  was  scourging  the 
city;  8,000  died  of  the  plague  during  the  short  siege  of 
1657.  The  heroic  Bishop,  Terence  Albert  O'Brien, 
lived  among  the  stricken.  Day  and  night  he  encour- 
aged the  people  to  be  true  to  their  God  and  their  coun- 
try. The  besiegers  offered  him  43,000  gold  crowns  to 
leave  the  city,  but  he  disdainfully  rejected  their  treach- 
erous advances.  When  the  siege  was  raised  no  quarter 
was  allowed  to  priests  or  bishops,  and  a  price  was  set 
on  O'Brien's  head.  It  was  in  the  pest-house,  minister- 
ing to  the  sick  and  dying,  that  the  enemy  found  this 
brave  prelate.  Brought  before  Ireton,  he  was  tried  by 
court-martial  and  condemned  to  the  horrible  death  of  a 
traitor,  in  which  the  gibbet  preceded  the  block,  and  the 
quartering  began  before  life  was  extinct.  Undismayed 
by  so  dire  a  prospect,  he  upbraided  Ireton  for  his  cruel- 

*Some  sixty  years  before  Ireton's  attack,  Spenser  described 
"  the  most  plentiful  and  populous  country  "  of  Munster  as  reduced 
to  "  a  heap  of  ashes  and  carcasses  "  hy  the  English  soldiery.  Later, 
the  Puritans  "  swore  to  extirpate  the  whole  Irish  nation  "  (Claren- 
don). June  4,  1646,  5,000  Irish,  under  Owen  Roe  O'Neill,  defeated 
8,000  Puritans  at  Benburb.  Napoleon  said  that,  had  this  intrepid 
warrior  lived,  he  would  have  proved  a  match  for  Cromwell. 

341 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyiie 

ties,  and,  in  stern  words,  which  proved  prophetic,  sum- 
moned the  unjust  and  sanguinary  judge  to  meet  him 
at  the  bar  of  eternal  justice,  to  answer  to  God  for  his 
crimes.  The  noble  head  of  the  martyr  was  spiked  on 
a  tower  in  the  middle  of  the  bridge.  The  sacred  spot 
on  which  he  won  his  crown  rs  proudly  pointed  out  by 
his  compatriots  and  reverenced  by  them  with  the  piety 
characteristic  of  their  race. 

Eight  days  after  this  awfully  dramatic  scene,  the 
dark  and  cruel  Ireton  was  writhing  in  the  agonies  of 
the  plague,  which  he  had  probably  caught  from  the 
bishop's  clothing.  He  raved  wildly  of  the  murdered 
prelate,  and  charged  upon  his  council  a  crime  com- 
mitted by  his  own  order.  This  fierce  persecutor,  who 
had  spilt  the  blood  of  the  saints  like  water,  enjoyed  no 
peace  after  the  awful  summons  of  his  victim.  In  tor- 
tures no  remedy  could  assuage,  he  died  in  despair.  In 
an  ancient  street  in  Limerick  is  Ireton's  house,  a  large, 
gloomy  mansion,  wearing  a  weird,  or,  rather,  condemned 
look ;  it  is  let  out  in  tenements,  and  gradually  falling 
into  decay.  His  corpse,  which  would  scarcely  be  al- 
lowed to  rest  in  consecrated  ground  in  Ireland,  was 
buried  in  Westminster  Abbey,  but  not  suffered  to  re- 
main there.  After  an  heroic  defense  of  six  months, 
two  thousand  five  hundred  of  the  garrison  laid  down 
their  arms  in  St.  Mary's  Cathedral.  As^they  marched 
sadly  out  of  that  venerable  edifice,  many  of  them  drop- 
ped dead  of  the  plague  ! 

William  III.  came  before  Limerick  (1690)  think- 
ing the  city  would  at   once  surrender.     The  soldiers, 

342 


And  the  Sieges  of  Limerick 

relieved  of  the  presence  of  their  continental  auxiliaries, 
guarded  every  post.  William's  twenty  thousand  men  en- 
camped on  the  crest  of  the  hills  of  Singland,  a  few  hun- 
dred yards  from  the  city  walls.  In  the  previous  century 
Limerick  had  been  called  the  city  of  castles.  Dinely, 
who  made  a  tour  of  Ireland  in  the  time  of  Charles  II., 
mentions  its  houses  as  "tall,  built  of  black  or  polished 
marble,  with  partitions  five  feet  thick,  and  battlements 
on  the  top."  Whitamore  Castle,  called  also  Sarsfield's 
Castle,  as  tradition  says  the  great  general  lived  there 
during  the  siege,  was  the  Globe  Tavern,  and  famed  for 
its  excellent  claret.  Ardent  spirits  were  sold  only  in 
drug  stores  till  William  III.  popularized  their  use 
legally  and  by  example.  The  walls  defending  the  Irish 
town  were  in  better  condition  than  those  of  the  Eng- 
lish town.  William's  friend,  Herr  Bentinck,  and  Wil- 
liam himself,  with  Herr  Overkirke  and  other  officers, 
reconnoitred  the  premises.  The  dash  and  spirit  of  the 
besiegers,  the  heroic  resistance  of  the  besieged,  and  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  a  bombardment  in  which  fair 
matrons  and  modest  maidens  took  part,  are  recorded 
by  the  aggressors  and  the  defenders.  The  ruthless 
savagery  of  William's  heterogeneous  warriors  is  a  tra- 
dition among  the  descendants  of  those  who  suffered 
from  it.  Their  chief  occupation  was  hanging  all  the 
unfortunate  Irishmen  who  came  in  their  way,  on  pre- 
tense that  they  were  Rapparees,  but  really  because 
they  were  true  to  their  creed  and  country. 

Among  the  objects  of  interest  that  rose  above  the 
walls  was  St.  Mary's  Cathedral,  from  whose  battlements 

343 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyne 

floated  the  standard  of  King  James.  This  beautiful 
edifice,  with  its  soaring  towers  and  romantic  bells,  was 
seized  by  the  Protestants,  June  15,  1655,  when  all  pa- 
pists were  commanded  to  leave  the  city.*  It  was  re- 
stored by  James  II.  to  the  owners,  who  held  it  during 
the  sieges  ( 1 690- 1 69 1 ).  After  the  Treaty  it  was  retaken 
by  the  Protestants.  Founded  by  Donald  O'Brien  in  the 
twelfth  century,  it  has  resisted  the  ravages  of  time  and 
escaped  the  iconoclastic  rage  of  more  ruthless  destroy- 
ers. The  poor  of  Limerick  indulge  the  hope  that  it 
will  yet  come  back  to  the  rightful  owners. 

This  venerable  temple,  though  abounding  in  objects 
of  interest  to  the  historian  and  antiquarian,  has  a  dark 
and  gloomy  aspect.  A  visitor  lately  remarked  this  to 
a  poor  woman  selling  apples  in  the  shadow  of  its  mas- 
sive spire.  "Ah,  then,"  she  replied,  "why  shouldn't  it 
be  dark  and  heavy?  Didn't  Cromwell's  wretches  and 
William's  Grangers  turn  out  the  Blessed  Sacrament 
and  quench  the  lamp?  Sure  it  couldnt  be  bright  or 
lightsome  without  Him  !  " 

VIII 

Sarsfield's  brilliant  achievement,  one  of  the 
grandest  exploits  of  modern  warfare,  by  which  he  led 
a  chosen  band  out  of  Limerick  and  blew  to  atoms  the 
siege-train  of  William,  saved  the  city.  The  bravery  of 
the  besieged  who  flung  back  their  assailants  whenever 
they  approached,  extorted  words  of  admiration  from 
the  phlegmatic  prince,  who  was  too  enthusiastic  a  sol- 
dier not  to  appreciate  the  extraordinary  heroism  of  the 

♦Cromwell's  State  Papers. 

344 


And  the   Sieges  of  Limerick 

defenders,  women  and  men.  The  official  list  puts  his 
loss  at  500  killed  and  i,ioo  wounded,  but  more  truth- 
ful authorities  rate  it  much  higher,  even  over  2,000 
killed.  In  the  heaps  of  the  slain  were  the  uniforms  of 
almost  every  country  in  Europe.  The  lateness  of  the 
season,  constant  rains,  and  other  reasons  are  given  for 
raising  the  siege.  But  it  was  raised  because  William  was 
beaten,  and  for  no  other  cause.  The  garrison,  aided 
by  the  heroic  women,  forced  him  to  withdraw.  Sars- 
field's  coup  on  the  memorable  night,  August  iith-i2th, 
contributed  immensely  to  the  discomfiture  of  his  bat- 
talions. To  his  dismay  he  learned  that  the  walls  which 
the  little  knight-errant,  Lauzan,  considered  incapable  of 
resisting  roasted  apples,  stood  firm  against  the  scientific 
engineering  of  the  most  famous  artillerists  in  the  world. 
The  maddened  besiegers,  in  retaliation  or  revenge, 
hacked  and  butchered  every  native  they  met.  William 
did  not  take  his  defeat  philosophically.  "  Uneasy  lies 
the  head  that  wears  a  crown,"  was  especially  true  of 
him  the  last  night  of  the  siege.  He  drank  plentifully 
of  the  strong  liquor  he  loved,  but  this,  instead  of  re- 
storing the  little  good  humor  he  had  at  his  best,  made 
him  more  morose  and  gloomy.  "  He  cursed  the  fate 
that  brought  him  to  Limerick  to  witness  a  defeat  un- 
paralleled in  the  annals  of  warfare.  None  of  his  gener- 
als dare  approach  him.  Tortured  and  maddened,  he 
cast  the  blame  on  all  about  him,  and,  as  he  weighed  the 
advantages  of  the  Boyne  with  the  losses  and  disgrace 
of  Limerick,  he  groaned  in  spirit.*      A  spirited  ballad 

*  Hist.  Limerick —  Lenihan. 
345 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyne 

by  Thomas  Davis,  on  the  Battle  of  Limerick,  August 
2"],  1690,  concludes: 

"  Out  with  a  roar  the  Irish  sprung, 
And  back  the  beaten  English  flung. 
Till  William  fled,  his  lords  among. 

From  the  city  of  Luimneach  lionnglas.* 

"  'Twas  thus  was  fought  that  glorious  fight. 
By  Irishmen  for  Ireland's  right  — 
May  all  such  days  have  such  night 

As  the  battle  of  Luimneach  lionnglas." 

William  raised  the  siege,  August  31st,  and  turning 
his  back  forever  on  the  "  city  of  the  Azure  river," 
embarked  for  England  September  5th,  and  reached 
Kensington  September  i6th.  No  doubt  he  was  con- 
soled by  his  adoring  consort,  whom  he  found  in 
much  better  physical  health  than  himself.  After 
her  return  to  England,  Mary  had  grown  enormously 
large. 

William  had  lost  his  hold  on  "  the  country  worth 
fighting  for."  Hundreds  of  regulars  were  dead  in  the 
trenches.  Before  starting  for  Waterford,  he  had  left 
his  well-drilled,  but  vicious,  soldiers  in  command  of  his 
countrymen,  Solmes  and  Ginckle. 

IX 

Colonel  Richard  Grace  repulsed  the  William- 
ites  at  Athlone.  "  When  provisions  fail,"  said  he,  "  I'll 
eat  my  boots,  but  never  surrender."  On  June  18,  i6gi, 
Ginckle  came  before  that  devoted  town  with  25,000 
men,  and  began  a  second  siege.      Grace,  a  gray-headed 

*  Limerick  of  the  Azure  river. 
346 


And  the   Sieges  of  Limerick 

veteran,  was  removed  to  a  subordinate  position,  and  his 
place  given  to  d'Usson.  This  was  one  of  the  numerous 
Jacobite  blunders.  Grace  fell  fighting  at  his  post. 
Bad  generalship  caused  most  of  the  Jacobite  disasters. 
However,  prodigies  of  valor  were  performed  by  the 
besieged,  and  the  enemy  were  retiring  when,  through 
a  mistake  of  St.  Ruth,  Athlone  was  taken  in  a  final 
assault.  July  23,  1691,  at  Aughrim,  was  fought  the 
greatest  battle  of  the  war.  The  enemy  lost  over  3,000, 
the  vanquished  over  2,000.  The  conqueror  might  have 
said  with  an  ancient  hero:  "One  such  victory  more 
and  I  am  undone."  The  death  of  the  impetuous  St. 
Ruth*  in  the  moment  of  triumph,  caused  the  defeat. 
The  reader  will  recall  Moore's  beautiful  lines  to  the  air 
of  "  The  Lamentation  of  Aughrim,"  beginning : 

"  Forget  not  the  field  where  they  perished 
The  truest,  the  last  of  the  brave, 
All  gone,  and  the  bright  hope  we  cherished 

Gone  with  them,  and  quenched  in  their  grave." 

Aughrim  is  now  a  mere  string  of  small  houses,  in  a 
sweet  pastoral  country.  The  ruined  castle  from  which 
the  Stuart  standard  waved  still  frowns  above  it.  The 
peasant  will  point  out  the  field  called  in  the  Irish  lan- 
guage :  "  The  cry  of  the  heart,"  where  widows  and 
orphans  sought  their  loved  husbands  and  fathers  among 
the  heaps  of  the  slain.      Hard  by  is  "  The  Bridge  of  a 

*St.  Ruth  showed  his  jealousy  by  ordering  Sarsfield  to  the 
rear,  and  keeping  him  in  ignorance  of  his  plans.  Yet,  in  ability 
and  capacity,  Sarsfield  was  infinitely  sviperior  to  the  other  great 
soldiers  of  his  time. 

347 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyne 

Thousand  Heads,"  in  defending  which,  tradition  says, 
i,ooo  Irish  warriors  fell  ;  7,000  are  said  to  have  per- 
ished at  Aughrim,  before  the  standard  of  St.  George 
was  flung  out  from  the  castle.  Ginckle  now  tried  his 
fortune  at  Limerick.  What  remained  of  the  armies 
that  had  charged  at  the  Boyne,  and  resisted  unto  death 
at  Athlone,  and  shed  their  blood  in  torrents  under  the 
shadow  of  the  ancient  castle  of  Aughrim  came  down  to 
the  Shannon  to  defend  the  beleaguered  city.  It  was 
said  that  Limerick  looked  somewhat  like  a  spider, 
whose  narrow  waist  was  Ball's  Bridge.  Portions  of  the 
old  walls  flanked  by  towers  are  still  standing.  As  late 
as  1760,  seventeen  gates  stood  around  Limerick,  whose 
sites  may  still  be  traced.  The  ramparts  defended  by 
women  stretched  from  St.  John's  Gate  to  Clare  street. 
Some  of  the  walls  thirty  feet  thick,  were  afterwards 
tunneled.  In  the  next  century,  they  were  metamor- 
phosed into  Roche's  beautiful  Hanging  Gardens,  the 
wonder  and  delight  of  the  people.  The  quarries  of 
Garryowen  supplied  material  for  the  citadel,  the  castle 
walls,  and  monuments ;  even  the  streets  were  paved 
with  marble.* 

For  sixty  days,  the  besieged,  under  Sarsfield,  re- 
sisted the  picked  guards  and  legions  of  Ginckle,  and 
the  history  of  the  late  siege  repeated  itself.  As  the 
foreign  mercenaries  approached,  Richard  Talbot,  Duke 
of  Tyrconnel  and  Lord  Deputy  for  James  II.,  was 
struck  with  apoplexy,  August   nth.     He  died  August 

*  Limerick  has  always  been  famous  for  flowers  and  gardens  ; 
Garrvoiven  is  a  corruption  of  Oweti\t  Garden. 

348 


And  the   Sieges  of  Limerick 

14th,  and  was  buried  in  St  Mary's  Cathedral  the  fol- 
lowing night.*  The  house  in  which  he  expired  was 
long  pointed  out;  only  its  site,  near  St.  Munchin's 
Church,  can  now  be  traced. 

The  most  disastrous  incident  of  the  siege  was  the 
massacre  of  the  courageous  men  who  held  Thomond 
Gate  against  the  enemy;  850  men  were  driven  across 
the  bridge  when  the  French  major  in  command  ordered 
the  drawbridge  to  be  raised,  lest,  in  a  hand-to-hand 
fight,  the  grenadiers  might  enter  the  city.  Into  the 
river  were  pushed  150  men;  600  were  cooped  up  on 
the  narrow  bridge,  so  closely  wedged  together  that 
they  were  unable  to  defend  themselves.  The  heaps 
of  the  slain  rose  higher  than  the  parapets;  over  600 
perished  of  that  gallant  band  that  had  for  hours 
checked  the  advance  of  a  whole  army. 

Want  of  food  and  ammunition  made  the  defense 
of  the  city  toward  the  close  nearly  impossible.  The 
besiegers  offered  conditions  with  which  no  fault  could 
be  found ;  further  resistance  was  useless,  and  on  Sep- 
tember 24th  a  three  days'  truce  was  begun.  Sarsfield 
and  the  brave  Scotchman,  Wauchop,  who  ably  sec- 
onded him,  conferred  with  the  Williamites,  represented 
by  their  leaders.  Near  Thomond  Bridge  may  be  seen, 
raised  by  steps  several  feet  from  the  ground,  the  large 
stone  which  tradition  asserts  was  used  as  a  table  when 
the  Treaty  was  signed,  October  3,  1591,  by  which  was 

*Tyrconnel,  an  Irish  noble,  and  a  staunch  friend  of  James  II., 
was  the  first  Catholic  made  Lord  Deputy  of  Ireland  since  the 
Reformation  —  and,  we  may  add,  the  last. 


The  Battle  of  the  Boyne 

closed  the  war  between  James  II.*  and  "his  son," 
William  of  Orange.  The  treaty  was  quickly  violated,t 
hence  Limerick  is  styled  "The  City  of  the  Violated 
Treaty." 

Scarcely  was  this  treaty  signed  when  a  French  fleet 
of  eighteen  ships  and  twenty  transports,  with  three 
thousand  men,  two  hundred  officers,  ten  thousand 
stand  of  arms,  with  plenty  of  clothing  and  provisions, 
appeared  in  the  Shannon.  Had  this  help  come  sooner, 
Sarsfield  would  not  have  accepted  the  favorable  terms 
of  the  enemy;  with  this  great  force  behind  him  he 
might  have  taken  back  his  word,  and  continued  his 
defense  of  Limerick.  But  the  gallant  soldier  was  too 
honorable  to  commit  a  breach  of  faith  —  what  he  had 
written  he  had  written.  He  kept  his  troth,  even 
though  Dopping,  Protestant  Bishop  of  Meath,  was 
\.t2.Q}cvin^  ex  cathedra  "the  sinfulness  of  keeping  your 
oath  or  faith  with  Papists,"  —  a  sinfulness  never  com- 
mitted in  those  days. 

*  James  has  been  blamed  for  coining  brass  money  and  gun 
money  {i.e.,  money  made  of  old  guns) ;  also  for  raising  the  value 
of  English  and  foreign  gold  and  silver  coin.  He  promised  to  re- 
deem all  at  the  expiration  of  the  "present  necessity."  Though 
an  able  financier  he  did  not  think  of  issuing  paper  money,  or 
creating  a  national  debt,  like  his  successors. 

t  When  Sarsfield  marched  out  of  Limerick,  colors  flying, 
drums  beating,  with  all  the  honors  of  war,  he  fondly  hoped  that 
be  had  secured  liberty  to  his  people.  But,  alas,  he  relied  in  vain 
on  the  honor  of  a  king.  The  "Treaty"  was  but  "the  perjured 
preface  "  to  the  Penal  Laws.  Besides  that  of  Limerick,  there  are 
two  violated  treaties  —  Mellifont  and  Kilkenny. 


And  the   Sieges  of  Limerick 

X 

The  Irish  army,  refusing  to  serve  under  William 
the  Usurper,  took  service  under  the  principal  sovereigns 
of  Europe;  Ginckle  strove  hard  to  obtain  these  brave 
men  for  his  master,  but  only  about  one  thousand, 
mostly  Englishmen  or  Ulster  men,  declined  to  go  to 
the  Continent.  Twelve  thousand  two  hundred  entered 
the  service  of  France,*  increasing  the  Irish  contingent 
there  to  nearly  twenty  thousand.  This  was  the  cele- 
brated Irish  Brigade,  whose  valor  was  gloriously  dis- 
played on  almost  every  battlefield  in  Europe.  When 
Maria  Teresa  instituted  fifty  crosses  of  the  Legion  of 
Honor,  forty-six  of  them  were  won  by  Irish  officers. 
Louis  XIV.  loved  to  welcome  these  exiles  to  his 
armies,  and  always  spoke  of  them  as  "my  brave  Irish." 
Francis  I.  wrote:  "The  more  Irish  officers  we  have  in 
the  Austrian  army  the  better."  In  several  battles  they 
turned  the  scale  against  the  English ;  when  defeated 
by  their  bravery  and  skill,  the  despicable  George  II. 
exclaimed:  "Cursed  be  the  laws  that  deprive  me  of 
such  subjects."  Yet  this  wretched  creature  added  new 
and  horrible  enactments  to  the  penal  code  already 
existing.  In  the  English  House  of  Commons  it  was 
said  that  more  injury  had  been  done  to  England  and 
her  allies  by  these  exiles,  than  if  all  the  Irish  Catholics 
had  been  left  in  possession  of  their  estates.  To  escape 
the  penal  laws,  thousands  of  young  men  joined  their 
friends  in  France,  Spain,  and  Austria,  and  many  emi- 
grated to  America.     In  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas  they 

*  Some,  not  choosing  either  service,  returned  to  their  homes. 
351 


The  Battle  of  the  Bovne 

soon  formed  the  majority;  in  1729  fifty-six  hundred 
Irish  landed  in  Philadelphia.  The  total  emigration  to 
France  amounted  to  one  million,  and  from  1691  to 
the  Revolution,  four  hundred  and  eighty  thousand 
Irishmen  died  in  the  service  of  France.  After  the 
defeat  of  the  English  at  Fontenoy,  May  11,  1745, 
the  government  decreed  the  penalty  of  death  against 
any  Irishman  enlisting  in  France.  Among  the  thou- 
sands who  won  distinction  in  foreign  lands  are 
Cooke,  O'Shaughnessy,  Lacy  (Russia),  Tyrconnel 
(Prussia),  Nugent,  O'Connor,  O'Brien,  Lally,  O'Reilly, 
Captain-General  of  Cuba,  Governor  of  Louisiana, 
Count  McCarthy,  and  Marquis  Casacalvo  (O'Farrell), 
Louisiana. 

Sarsfield,*  "  the  Irish  Bayard,"  sans peiir  et  sajis  rc- 
proche,  is  commemorated  in  Limerick  by  a  graceful 
bronze  statue  (Lawlor,  sculptor).  On  the  pedestal  is 
the  inscription  : 

"  To  commemorate  the  indomitable  energy  and  stain- 
less honor  of  General  Patrick  Sarsfield,  Earl  of  Lucan, 
the  heroic  defender  of  Limerick  during  the  sieges  of 
1690  and  1 69 1,  who  died  from  the  effects  of  wounds  re- 
ceived at  the  battle  of  Landen,  1693." 

*  Sarsfield  married  Honora  Burke,  granddaughter  of  the 
Baron  of  Brittas,  who  suffered  the  horrible  death  of  a  traitor,  in 
1610,  because  he  had  harbored  a  priest.  Sarsfield's  widow,  Coun- 
tess Honora,  married  James  Stuart,  Duke  of  Berwick,  and  thus  be- 
came daughter-in-law  to  James  II.,  and  sister-in-law  to  queens 
Mary  and  Anne,  the  so-called  Pretender,  and  Princess  Louisa 
Stuart.  But  these  high  connections  could  add  no  distinction  to 
the  widow  of  Sarsfield. 

352 


And  flic   Sicgvs  of  Limerick 

The  site  was  presented  by  Most  Rev.  George  Butler, 
bishop  of  Limerick.  The  writer  had  the  pleasure  of 
seeing  this  statue  tastefully  decorated  with  flowers  and 
banners,  on  the  second  centenary  of  Sarsfield's  defeat 
of  William  III. 

Frightful  statutes  followed  tlvv:'  violation  of  the 
Treaty.  William,  Anne,  George  I.,  and  George  II.  en- 
larged the  horrid  code.  A  characteristic  enactment  of 
Anne  gave  a  child  who  conformed  to  the  Protestant  re- 
ligion, his  father's  estates,  excluding  other  heirs.  As 
the  sister  queens,  Mary  and  Anne,  had  driven  out  their 
own  father,  it  was  supposed  other  children  would  not 
hesitate  to  grow  rich  in  a  similar  way.*  In  these  reigns 
Ireland  touched  the  depths  of  her  degradation  ;  yet 
contraband  intercourse  with  the  great  world  abroad  kept 
hope  alive  in  the  hearts  of  many.  The  Pretender,  "  the 
son  of  a  King,"  was  to  them  a  hero,  because  he  would  not 
renounce  the  true  religion  for  a  triple  crown.  When  the 
saintly  Mary  Beatrice  passed  away,  they  bewailed  her 
in  their  poetic  language,  and  in  their  poor  cabins  sang  a 
"  Lament  for  the  Queen  "  when  the  day's  work  was  done. 

Meanwhile  the  penal  laws  continued  to  debase  those 
who  executed  them.     "  Where  they  were  not  bloody," 

*The  heroes  and  heroines  of  the  Revolution  were  mostly 
cursed  with  bad  sons  or  had  none.  William  and  Mary  had  no 
issue.  Queen  Anne's  eighteen  children  all  died  young.  The  heir 
of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  Lord  Blandford,  died 
a  boy.  Bishop  Burnet's  sons  were  daring  reprobates.  Thomas 
wrote  a  song  on  his  father's  death,  beginning: 

"The  fiends  were  brawling, 
When  Burnet  descending  !  " 

23  353 


The  Battle  of  the  Boynic 

says  Edmund  Burke,  "  they  were  worse ;  they  were  slow, 
cruel,  and  outrageous  in  their  nature,  and  kept  men 
alive  only  to  insult  in  their  persons  every  one  of  the 
rights  and  feelings  of  humanity."  Yet  so  slowly  did 
the  work  of  conversion  proceed  that  it  was  computed  it 
would  take  four  thousand  years  to  convert  the  Irish  ! 
Nay,  they  sometimes  converted  their  masters.  From 
the  day  that  Strongbow  married  Eva,  Englishmen  and 
other  foreigners  in  Ireland  have  shown  a  strong  dis- 
position to  marry  Irish  wives.*  Many  of  William's 
men,f  and  not  a  few  Hessians  of  a  later  date,  settled  in 
the  country  and  married  Irish  maidens.  Ireton  com- 
manded his  officers  not  to  marry  Irish  women  on  pain 
of  being  cashiered.  Yet  many  strict  Catholics  are  de- 
scended from  Cromwell's  own  soldiers. 

Though  ground  to  the  dust,  the  Irish  :{:  had  comfort 
in  hearing  of  the  glorious  career  of  their  countrymen 
abroad.  "  Wherever  the  Irish  served,"  says  Fornman, 
"  they  had  the  good  fortune  to  distinguish  themselves  ; 
and  it  may  be  said,  to  their  eternal  honor,  that,  from 
the  time  they  entered  the  service  of  France,  they  had 
never  the  least  blot  on  their  escutcheon."  At  home, 
though  "  doomed  to  death,  they  were  fated  not  to  die." 

*  The  proudest  Norman  invaders  of  Ireland  sought  Irish  wives, 
but  the  Normans  in  England  -would  hold  no  social  relations  with 
the  Saxons,  whom  they  spoke  of  as  little  better  than  swine. 

T  This  is  how  the  late  Bishop  Hendricken  of  Providence,  a  na- 
tive of  Ireland,  came  by  his  name. 

%  Under  no  circumstances  did  the  Irish  ever  give  up  their  de- 
sire, their  love,  and  their  struggle  for  freedom.  And  this  is,  per- 
haps, the  most  remarkable  feature  of  their  history. 

354 


And  the  Sieges  of  Limerick 

Far  on  in  the  next  century  they  spoke  their  ultimatum  : 
"  Free  Trade,  or  Speedy  Revolution."  In  the 
Irish  Parliament,  April  i6,  1782,  Grattan's  celebrated 
resolution  passed  unanimously: 

"  That  the  kingdom  of  Ireland  is  a  distinct  kingdom, 
with  a  Parliament  of  her  own,  the  sole  legislator  thereof 
—  that  there  is  no  body  of  men  competent  to  make  laws 
to  bind  the  nation,  but  the  King,  Lords,  and  Commons 
of  Ireland, —  nor  any  Parliament  which  has  any  author- 
ity or  power  of  any  sort  whatsoever  in  this  country,  save 
only  the  Parliament  of  Ireland." 

Over  two  hundred  years  have  passed  since  the 
Treaty  of  Limerick  was  signed  and  violated.  And  to- 
day, after  a  strange  and  wonderful  history,  the  Irish 
race  is  pre-eminently  Catholic,  at  home  and  abroad,  sup- 
plying the  English-speaking  Catholic  world,  to  a  great 
extent,  with  clergy  and  teachers.  Foreigners  settling 
in  Ireland  have  mostly  been  absorbed  into  the  race, 
and  are  one  with  it  in  religion  and  love  of  the  dear  old 
land.  May  the  good  God,  who  has  upheld  the  ever- 
faithful  Isle  in  the  past,  be  with  her  people  in  the  fu- 
ture, to  give  them  unity  of  sentiment  and  action,  as 
well  as  unity  of  faith. 

"  Here  came  the  brown  Phoenician,  a  man  of  trade  and  toil — 
Here  came  the  proud  Milesian,  a-hungering  for  spoil ; 
And  the  Firbolg  and  the  Cymri,  and  the  hard  enduring  Dane, 
And  the  iron  lord  of  Normandy,  with  the  Saxon  in  their  train. 

"And  oh,  it  were  a  gallant  deed  to  show  before  mankind, 
How  every  race  and  every  creed  might  be  by  love  combined — 
Might  be  combined,  yet  not  forget  the  fountains  whence  they  rose, 
As  filled  by  many  a  rivulet,  the  stat«elv  Shannon  flows," 

355 


ALABAMA 

I  —  "Here  we  Rest!" 

[rn  LE  is  known  in  Europe  of  the  50,722  square 
miles  admitted  to  the  Union,  as  the  State  of 
Alabama,  in  1819;  whose  head  is  in  the  Ap- 
palachian mountain  chain,  and  whose  feet  are  laved  by 
the  bright  waters  of  the  Mexican  Gulf.  Of  late  years, 
its  "coal,  the  source  of  power,  and  iron,  the  source  of 
strength,"  have  attracted  the  stranger  within  its  boun- 
daries; but  its  wonderful  mineral  resources,  which  have 
flashed  into  sudden  prominence,  have  not  been  suffi- 
ciently utilized  in  developing  its  grand  agricultural 
capabilities.  Friends  who  assume  to  have  its  material 
prosperity  at  heart  regret  that  the  immigration  directed 
towards  this  State  is  comparatively  small.  And  this  is 
surprising.  For  everything  is  here  that  attracts  set- 
tlers to  other  centres,  and  more.  The  writer  has  often 
wondered  why  so  many  who  make  up  their  minds  to 
leave  the  land  of  their  birth  for  America  should  pitch 
their  tents  among  the  awful  blizzards  of  the  north  and 
west,  instead  of  seeking  homes  on  the  genial  soil,  in 
the  balmy  climate,  of  the  beautiful  South. 

So  vast  a  subject  cannot  be  "  touched  with  a  needle," 
in  a  single  magazine  article.  But  we  may  at  least  give 
our  readers  some  idea  of   the  romantic   history,  the 

356 


Alabama 

present  possibilities,  the  social  and  religious  condi- 
tion of  a  semi-tropical  region,  which  has  an  area  18,000 
square  miles  larger  than  Ireland,  and  is  as  rich  in 
natural  wealth  as  any  other  tract  of  equal  size  on  the 
American  Continent.  Besides,  in  its  varied  population, 
in  which  every  country  in  Europe,  and  at  least  one  in 
Asia,  and  every  State  and  Territory  of  the  Union,  are 
represented,  there  has  always  been  a  fair  sprinkling  of 
Irish,  who  certainly  have  not  been  the  least  useful 
citizens  of  this  commonwealth. 

Here  is  how,  according  to  a  cherished  tradition, 
Alabama  received  its  sweet-sounding  name.  A  band 
of  Indians,  who  quitted  Mexico  during  the  upheavals 
consequent  on  the  arrival  of  the  famous  ship-burner, 
Cortez,  wandering  eastwards  in  search  of  a  new  home, 
reached  the  noble  river  now  known  as  the  Alabama. 
Their  chieftain,  charmed  with  the  gorgeous  beauty  of 
the  forest  scenery,  gave  the  signal  to  halt,  and,  drawing 
up  under  the  shade  of  a  magnificent  oak,  struck  his 
spear  in  the  ground  and  exclaimed  with  enthusiasm: 
"Alabama !"  which,  being  interpreted,  means:  "Here 
we  rest ! " 

And  it  certainly  cannot  be  denied  that  this  State 
abounds  in  regions  of  wondrous  natural  loveliness. 
Parts  of  it  dispute  with  New  Hampshire  the  title, 
"Switzerland  of  America."  It  has  sixty  miles  of  sea- 
coast  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  ;  and  its  varieties  of  cli- 
mate*—  it  lies  between  the  31st  and  the  35th  parallels 

*Mean  annual  temperature,  61  degrees.  Land  may  be  had  at 
from  $1  to  $25  an  acre. 

357 


Alabama 

of  latitude  —  are  said  to  be  milder  than  the  varieties 
of  places  of  corresponding  latitude  elsewhere.  Nor 
is  beauty  its  only  gift.  Its  rivers  are  channels  of  com- 
merce, bearing  its  products  of  mine  and  field  and 
forest  to  the  southern  seas.  Its  coal  areas,  and  ridges 
of  red  and  brown  iron,  are  practically  inexhaustible. 
Its  cereal  belt,  mineral  belt,  cotton  belt,  timber  belt, 
and  prairie  belt,  are  named  from  their  respective  staples. 
Fair  villages  nestle  in  the  tortuous  windings  of  its  clear 
streams.  Its  fertile  bosom  is  rich  with  the  vegetation 
of  high  and  low  latitudes.  Its  trees  bend  beneath  their 
golden,  and  purple,  and  yellow  burdens,  of  orange,  fig, 
and  peach.  Its  fields  are  green  with  the  rustling  sugar 
cane,  or  white  with  the  mimic  snow  of  cotton,  or  cov- 
ered with  the  soft  verdure  of  higher  regions,  or  the 
glory  of  primeval  forests.  Its  cities  are  warmed  and 
lit  by  its  own  coal,  and  its  superabundant  waters  cool 
the  dusty  streets  in  the  glow  of  summer.  Its  only 
port.  Mobile,  is  circled  by  waters  that  never  freeze. 
It  has  pleasuring  spots,  as  Blount  Springs,  in  a  pictur- 
esque mountain  region,  and  Point  Clear,  the  "Long 
Branch  of  the  South,"  which  compare  favorably  with 
many  more  famous  watering-places.  Geographically, 
West  Florida  would  seem  to  belong  to  Alabama,  and 
Alabama  has  more  than  once  tried  to  acquire  it  by 
purchase,  offering  for  it,  on  one  occasion,  a  million  dol- 
lars. But  the  Floridians  refused  to  part  with  any  por- 
tion of  their  territory. 

Alabama  has  Tennessee  on  the  north,  Georgia  on 
the  east,  Florida  and  the  Gulf  on  the  south,  and  Mis- 

358 


Alabama 

sissippi  on  the  west.  Its  population  is  but  29*  to  the 
square  mile,  though  it  is  capable  of  supporting  as  many 
as  Massachusetts,  286.  As  was  the  case  with  Califor- 
nia, in  the  days  of  the  gold  fever,  its  agricultural  possi- 
bilities are  partially  overlooked  in  estimating  its 
undeveloped  natural  riches.  For  this  State,  as  for  the 
other  Southern  States,  the  Civil  War  was  a  social  revo- 
lution. The  slaves  were  freed,  but  no  laborers  were  at 
hand  to  take  their  places.  Immense  plantations,  once 
smiling  gardens,  were  soon  over-run  with  the  riotous 
weed  and  the  tangled  vine.  Farms  have  been  re- 
claimed from  these  wildernesses,  and  the  natural  fertility 
of  the  soil  increased  by  rotation  of  crops.  It  is  not 
generally  known  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  that 
two,  three,  or  even  four  crops  in  the  year  may  be  wrung 
from  the  plenteous  bosom  of  Mother  Earth,  in  the 
Sunny  South.  Louisiana's  coat  of  arms,  the  Pelican, 
fabled  as  feeding  her  young  from  her  breast,  typifies 
the  superabundant  richness  of  the  soil ;  the  same  figure 
might  be  applied  to  much  of  the  southern  country. 
True,  the  chief  use  of  this  bird,  common  enough  in  the 

*  About  half  the  population  of  Alabama  is  colored.  Very  few 
blacks  outside  Mobile  are  Catholics.  Though  the  State  has  its 
share  of  intelligent  citizens  and  has  produced  some  eminent  per- 
sons, yet  in  remote  quarters  there  is  not  a  little  gross  ignorance, 
especially  as  regards  the  Church.  The  vilest  anti-Catholic  litera- 
ture is  circulated  among  these  people,  and,  through  ignorance 
which  seems  invincible,  believed  as  gospel  truth.  Isolation,  and 
other  causes  —  like  isolation,  daily  disappearing  —  have  produced 
some  whites  very  low  in  the  intellectual  order,  whom  the  negroes 
expressively  call  "  white  trash." 

359 


Alabama 

State  which  has  adopted  it,  is  to  illustrate  the  goodness 
of  Our  Blessed  Lord  (whom  St.  Thomas  addresses  :  Pie 
Pclicane  Jesu  Domine  /)  in  feeding  us  with  His  adorable 
Body  and  Precious  Blood  in  the  Blessed  Sacrament. 
And  this  brings  us  to  the  second  part  of  our  article. 

II  —  Religion 

Religiously,  Alabama  does  not  present  the  most 
brilliant  aspect  to  the  Catholic  eye.  It  is,  perhaps,  the 
only  territory  once  in  possession  of  the  French  and 
Spaniards,  that  retains  no  Catholic  Saint,  or  mystery  of 
religion  in  the  varied  nomenclature  of  its  cities,  country, 
rivers,  mountains  —  with  the  exception  of  some  streets 
in  Mobile.  To  a  great  extent  it  is  in  the  hands  of  the 
sects.  Methodists,  Baptists,  and  other  denominations, 
have  large  congregations  everywhere.  Catholics  form 
but  a  small  minority  of  the  population.  Of  a  French 
colony,  planted  here  some  generations  ago,  almost  all 
the  descendants  have  lost  the  Faith  of  their  Fathers. 
The  descendants  of  Irish  immigrants,  in  many  places, 
have  done  little  better,  and  every  "  persuasion "  has 
amongst  its  foremost  adherents  names  decidedly  Mi- 
lesian. The  immense  size*  of  a  country  so  sparsely 
peopled,  the  fewness  of  Catholic  priests,  the  difficulty 
heretofore  of  going  from  Catholic  centres  to  the  interior, 
and  the  want  of  Catholic  schools,  are  some  of  the  causes 
of  the  sad  decay  of  the  true  Religion.  Often  people 
lost  that  priceless  boon  without  fault  of  theirs.    Parents 

*  A  missionary  sajs  that  the  district  over  which  he  travels 
alone  is  as  large  as  Switzerland. 

360 


Alabama 

died,  leaving  children  far  from  Catholic  relations  ;  nat- 
urally, such  were  brought  up  non-Catholics.  Mixed 
marriages,  which  the  Church  has  always  "  abhorred," 
played  their  evil  part ;  the  most  eloquent  and  success- 
ful prelate  among  the  non-Catholics  of  the  South,  was 
son  of  an  Irish  father,  who  died  when  he  was  a  babe, 
and  a  Protestant  mother.  Unhappily,  Irish  and  French 
names  abound  among  the  non-Catholic  clergy  of  the 
South.  And  the  doctrine,  if  any,  which  they  preach, 
is  not  the  whole  "  Faith  once  delivered  to  the  Saints." 
The  diocese  of  Mobile  includes  Alabama  and  west- 
ern Florida,  and  is  about  as  large  in  territorial  extent 
as  England.  Its  muster-roll  consists  of  one  Bishop,* 
1 8  secular  priests,  4  of  whom  have  been  on  the  mission 
over  25  years  —  a  proof  of  the  healthfulness  of  the  cli- 
mate—  6  Jesuit  Fathers  doing  missionary  work,  8  Jes- 
uit Fathers,  with  several  Jesuit  professors  not  yet 
ordained,  at  Spring  Hill  College  ;  8  Benedictine  priests  ; 
houses  of  the  Visitation,  i  ;  Sisters  of  Charity,  3  ;  Sis- 
ters of  Loretto,  i  ;  Sisters  of  Mercy,  3 ;  Sisters  of  Notre 
Dame,  i ;  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph,  i  ;  Sisters  of  St.  Bene- 
dict, 2  ;  and  Brothers  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  2.  There 
are  35  Visitation  Nuns ;  18  Sisters  of  Charity;  13  Lo- 
retto Sisters;  32  Sisters  of  Mercy  ;  5  Sisters  of  St.  Jo- 
seph ;  14  Sisters  of  St.  Benedict ;  and  14  Brothers  of 
the  Sacred   Heart. f     In  the  institutions  of   these   re- 

*Bishops  of  Mobile:  Right  Rev.  Drs.  Portier,  1829;  Quinlan, 
1859;  Manucy,  1884;  O'Sullivan,  1885;  Allen,  1897. 

+  The  above  statistics  are  not  correct  now  (1899).  For  in- 
stance, the  Sisters  of  Mercy  whose  Mother  house  is  in  Mobile 
have  six  houses  and  seventy  members. 

361 


Alabama 

ligious,  about  1,900  children  are  educated.  And 
the  number  of  CathoHcs  hardly  exceeds  18,000,  the 
entire  population  of  the  territory  included  in  the 
Mobile  diocese,  being  in  the  neighborhood  of  1,600,- 
000.  Considering  its  remoteness  and  its  resources, 
the  number  of  institutions  is  large,  but,  like 
the  loaves  of  the  gospel,  "  what  are  they  among  so 
many?  " 

Of  late  years,  religious  prospects  have  brightened. 
Every  part  of  the  State  has  been  explored  by  mission- 
aries. Isolated  Catholics  in  remote  districts  have  been 
visited.  Railroads,  opened  to  subserve  purposes  of 
commerce,  enable  the  Catholic  priest  to  go  about  like 
the  Good  Shepherd,  seeking  that  which  was  lost,  and 
preaching  the  Sacred  Name,  whereby  alone  we  can  be 
saved.  The  harvest  indeed  is  great,  and  the  laborers 
are  few — in  many  places  none.  But,  within  the  bor- 
ders of  this  fair  and  fertile  region,  prayer  ascends  with- 
out ceasing  to  the  Lord  of  the  harvest,  that  he  may 
send  laborers  into  His  vineyard. 

Ill  —  Montgomery  and  Selma 
The  reader  will  now  be  introduced  to  some  Ala- 
bama towns  known  to  the  writer. 

Montgomery,  the  capital,  pleasantly  situated  on  an 
amphitheatre  of  low  hills,  has  some  wide  streets  hand- 
somely laid  out  and  shaded  with  the  native  water  oak. 
It  is  blessed  with  a  Catholic  Church,  and  a  convent 
crowns  one  of  its  loftiest  eminences.  In  history  it 
lives   as   the    first    capital  of  the   Confederate  States, 

362 


Alabama 

where  the  Confederate  Constitution  was  adopted,  and 
the  Confederate  President  inaugurated.  Here  Jeffer- 
son Davis  began  his  reign  over  a  nation  whose  ex- 
istence, if  brief,  was  brilliant,  and  whose  armies  often 
recalled  the  finer  qualities  of  the  soldiers  of  Greece  and 
Rome.  A  prehistoric  race  of  Indians,  known  as 
Mound-Builders,  left  traces  of  their  works  about  the 
locality,  which  have  disappeared.  The  present  city, 
once  known  as  New  Philadelphia,  was  incorporated  in 
1819,  and  chartered  as  a  city  in  1837.  It  is  named 
after  the  dashing  Irish  soldier,  General  Montgomery, 
who  fell  at  the  attack  on  Quebec,  December  31,  1775. 
The  capitol  is  a  handsome  structure,  and  crowns  a  lofty 
and  beautiful  site. 

Of  Birmingham,  the  magic  city,  which  has  grown 
up  as  it  were  in  a  single  night,  like  the  gourd  of  the 
prophet,  we  cannot  say  much  from  personal  observa- 
tion, for  we  never  beheld  it  save  in  rapid  transit,  and 
by  moonlight.  In  the  heart  of  the  cotton  belt  is  Selma, 
a  city  of  16,000  inhabitants.  Its  founder,  Thomas 
Moore,  a  literary  personage  and  a  student  of  Ossian, 
took  its  name  from  that  poet,  who  speaks  of  the  songs 
of  Selma,  and  Selma  of  the  harps.  In  1820,  it  was  in- 
corporated, its  name  being  changed  from  Moore's  Bluff. 
It  was  an  important  depot  of  the  Confederates,  and 
was  stormed  and  captured  by  General  Wilson,  who 
burnt  its  arsenal  and  shot  and  shell  foundries.  Selma 
is  a  great  cotton  mart,  being  in  a  rich  agricultural  dis- 
trict, and  close  to  the  mineral  regions.  From  its  posi- 
tion it  is  called  Central  City.      Several  lines  of  railroad 

363 


Alabama 

meet  here,  and  it  has  some  large  factories.  Its  chief 
thoroughfare,  Broad  street,  is  beautifully  shaded,  save  in 
the  business  portions,  where  it  touches  the  river  Ala- 
bama. Regular  rows  of  trees  line  every  street ;  this  adds 
immensely  to  its  beauty.  It  has  over  one  hundred  Ar- 
tesian wells,  and  is  well  equipped  against  the  dust,  so  dis- 
agreeable in  long  stretches  of  dry  weather.  Before  the 
sprinkler  and  the  hose  became  universal,  the  cities  of 
the  South  were  often  Saharas  of  stifling  dust,  almost  as 
bad  as  Salt  Lake  City  or  Ogden.  Selma  people  are  of 
many  States  and  nations ;  there  is  a  fair  contingent  of 
Irish,  some  of  whom  are  pious  Catholics,  but  some, 
alas,  have  lost  their  Faith  for  which  their  fathers  bled 
for  centuries.  It  has  a  neat  stone  church.*  The  pas- 
tors are  Jesuit  Fathers.  It  has  also  a  Convent  of 
Mercy  and  flourishing  schools,  attended  by  all  the 
Catholics,  and  many  non-Catholic  children  of  the  place. 
Selma  is  one  of  the  handsomest  cities  in  the  South. 

IV  —  Mobile 

Mobile,  the  oldest  and  most  historic  of  the  Ala- 
bama towns,  has  a  name  which  sounds  strangely  in 
European  ears,  and  suggests  a  shifting  city.  It  is  not, 
however,  derived  from  anything  connected  with  mobil- 
ity, but  from  a  tribe  of  Indians  who  possessed  lands 
stretching  from  its  bay  far  into  the  interior.  Their 
most  important  town,  Maitvila,  was  strongly  fortified. 

*  Built  by  Father  John  J.  O'Leary  Cork.  A  monument  on 
its  north  wall  "  records  his  virtues  and  perpetuates  his  memory." 
R.  LP. 


Alabaf/ia 

From  their  powerful  cacique,  Tuscaloosa,  who  made  a 
brave  stand  against  the  Spanish  invaders  under  De 
Soto  (1539)  and  perished  defending  his  ancestral  do- 
mains, the  former  capital  of  Alabama  is  named.  The 
historian,  Garcilasso  de  las  Vegas,  says  the  Mauvileans 
lost  nearly  11,000  warriors  in  this  conflict.  Their  name 
is  perpetuated  in  the  Gulf  City  —  a  name  suggestive  of 
martial  daring  and  heroic  deeds.  It  became  Mobila  in 
the  mouth  of  the  Spaniards  who  sounded  v  as  b,  a  pro- 
nunciation lately  condemned  by  the  Spanish  Academy. 
The  French  have  given  us  Mobile. 

The  bravery  of  De  Soto  and  his  followers  became  a 
fountain  of  poetry  and  legend  for  future  generations. 
His  chivalrous  hosts  were  accompanied  by  priests,  who, 
no  doubt,  converted  many  Indians.  Some  must  have 
stayed  behind  when  the  hero  swept,  comet-like,  through 
the  western  wilderness  in  search  of  other  lands  to  con- 
quer. Benign  shades  of  gracious  priests  sometimes 
appear  in  Indian  legend.  Students  of  Southland 
legendary  lore  will  recall  the  priest  mentioned  as  going 
out  in  a  frail  barque,  at  twelve  of  the  clock  on  Christ- 
mas night,  lured  by  the  mystic  music  of  Pascagoula, 
in  the  vicinity  of  Mobile,  and  many  another  phantom 
priest. 

A  century  and  a  half  later  the  terrible  palefaces,  who 
lived  in  song  and  story,  again  appeared.  This  time 
they  came  to  stay.  In  1700,  Bienville,  who  had  made 
a  settlement  in  Biloxi,  came  to  the  Mobile  river,  by 
order  of  his  Government,  to  found  the  capital  of  Louis- 
iana.     This  distinction,  however,  was   transferred,  in 

365 


Alabama 

1723,  to    New    Orleans,  founded    by   the   same   great 
Catholic  colonizer,  on  the  Mississippi. 

Mobile  progressed  slowly.  Famine  often  ravaged 
the  new  settlement,  and  now  and  then  the  Chickasaws 
and  the  Choctaws  swooped  down  upon  the  colonists. 
Even  when  pacified  by  presents,  they  were  a  menace. 
Amid  all  this  desolation,  crowds  were  brought  to  the 
true  faith.  Many  Frenchmen  married  Indian  women, 
and  the  Church  invariably  sustained  the  lawfulness  of 
such  marriages.  Bienville  often  sojourned  at  Mobile. 
From  its  shores,  the  gallant  St.  Denis  started  on  his 
famous  expedition  to  the  City  of  Mexico,  which  seems 
to  belong  to  the  brilliant  realm  of  romantic  adventure, 
rather  than  the  sober  domain  of  history.  Successive 
governors  of  Louisiana  came  hither  from  time  to  time, 
laden  with  presents  for  the  aborigines.  Often  the 
settlers  were  on  the  point  of  withdrawing  to  New  Or- 
leans, but  were  dissuaded  by  Bienville,  always  ready  to 
help  them.  In  1736  he  arrived  from  New  Orleans  with 
nearly  600  white  troops  and  a  company  of  free  negroes 
offlcered  by  men  of  their  own  race.  They  were  joined 
by  600  Choctaws,  and  all  proceeded  to  the  Tombigbee, 
to  fight  the  Chickasaws  —  a  disastrous  campaign  to 
Bienville.  The  Chickasaws,  incited  to  acts  of  hostility 
by  the  English,  continued  their  depredations  whenever 
they  could  do  so  unchecked.  The  great  chief.  Red 
Shoe,  was  in  the  English  interest,  though  he  accepted 
the  liberal  presents  of  the  Louisiana  governors.  Hur- 
ricanes threatened  the  existence  of  the  village  of 
wattles.       Beauchamp,  the    commander,  tells    of   one, 

366 


Alabama 

September  ii,  1740,  that  almost  annihilated  it.  The 
storehouses  containing  the  provisions  of  the  garrison 
were  swept  away,  and  had  he  not  sent  his  men  "barrel 
fishing,"  they  would  have  died  of  hunger.  Another 
hurricane  seized  the  boats,  logs,  and  buoys  in  the  bay, 
and  scattered  them  in  splinters  about  the  streets,  thus 
supplying  the  settlers  with  their  winter  fuel. 

In  1746  Mobile  had  a  population  of  400.  To  this 
the  Grand  Marquis,  Vaudrieul,  Governor  of  Louisiana, 
added  a  garrison  of  400  French  and  75  Swiss.  He  also 
had  every  house  defended  by  palisades,  measures  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  the  protection  of  the  embryo  city. 
In  1763  the  French  surrendered  Mobile  to  the  English, 
and  the  "spotless  banner"  descended,  never  again  to 
be  raised  over  its  fort.  With  malignant  ingenuity  the 
new  masters  tormented  the  colonists,  and  perfidiously 
violated  the  stipulations  of  the  treaty,  which  placed 
them,  against  their  will,  under  the  British  flag.  But  in 
1780  the  dashing  young  Governor  of  Louisiana,  Ber- 
nardo de  Galvez  (for  whom  Galveston  is  named), 
wrested  Mobile  from  the  English,  with  an  army  of 
Spanish  regulars,  colonial  militia  (the  splendid  company 
formed  by  Governor  O'Reilly),  and  free  blacks,  num- 
bering in  all  2,000.  The  English  flag  was  taken  from 
Fort  Charlotte,  and  the  flaming  colors  of  Spain  flung 
to  the  breeze. 

When  Mobile  was  85  years  old  her  population  was 
but  746.  Under  the  Spaniards  it  nearly  doubled  in 
three  years.  The  census  of  1788  gave  the  now  flour- 
ishing  settlement   1,468.     In   181 2  General  Wilkinson 

367 


Alabama 

took  possession  of  it  for  the  United  States,  and  "  the 
Stars  and  Stripes"  have  since  floated  over  it,  save  for 
a  short  term  ere  the  "Stars  and  Bars"  of  the  Confed- 
eracy became  the  "Conquered  Banner." 

Mobile,  situated  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mobile  river, 
is  one  of  the  chief  cities  of  the  South  in  wealth,  com- 
merce, and  population.  The  entrance  from  the  Gulf  is 
three  miles  wide,  and  is  defended  by  two  forts.  It  is  a 
handsome  city,  especially  in  the  suburbs.  For  trees, 
flowers,  fruits,  and  vegetables,  it  is  the  glory  of  the 
South.  There  is  much  culture  and  refinement,  and  no 
small  share  of  literary  ability,  among  its  6o,ocx)  inhabi- 
tants. The  governors  of  Louisiana,  under  whom  it  fell 
for  over  a  century  previous  to  the  American  domina- 
tion, were  pious  Christians  and  able  men,  and  did  not 
neglect  the  religious  interests  in  the  colonies  over 
which  they  ruled.  From  Bienville  to  Aubrey  under 
French  sway,  and  from  O'Reilly  to  O'Farrell  (Casa- 
calvo)  under  the  Spanish  regime,  almost  everything 
was  done  that  could  be  done  by  zealous  lay  governors 
to  promote  religion.*  Louisiana  included  a  territory 
larger  than  Alexander  conquered.  But  its  early  history 
was  mostly  enacted  by  the  Mississippi,  or  on  the  sandy 
slopes  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

The  religion  of  its  founders  flourishes  in  Mobile. 
It  possesses  a  noble  cathedral,  which  remotely  suggests 
the  Madeleine  at  Paris  ;  and  churches  under  the  invo- 
cation of  St.  Patrick,  St.   Joseph,   St.   Mary,  and  St. 

*In  1789  the  King  of  Spain  commanded,  bj  a  royal  decree, 
that  on  every  plantation  there  should  be  a  chaplain. 

368 


Alabama 

Vincent.  For  over  half  a  century  the  Visitation  Con- 
vent  has  dispensed  higher  education  to  thousands.  Sis- 
ters of  Charity,  Sisters  of  St.  Joseph,  Sisters  of  Mercy, 
and  Brothers  of  the  Sacred  Heart,  also  labor  to  fit  the 
young  for  earth  without  ?/;;fitting  them  for  heaven. 
"The  College,"  the  best  classical  and  commercial  semi- 
nary in  the  South,  is  conducted  by  the  Jesuits,  whose 
qualifications  as  educators  no  one  questions.  There 
are  hospitals  and  orphanages,  and  many  other  institu- 
tions, on  which  space  will  not  allow  us  to  expatiate. 
At  one  time  a  large  share  of  Irish  emigration  was  di- 
rected towards  Mobile.  Save  St.  Augustine,  Mobile  is, 
with  perhaps  one  exception,  the  oldest  city  in  the  South. 
In  spite  of  wars,  foreign  and  domestic,  floods  and  hurri- 
canes that  almost  swept  her  from  the  earth,  intrigues  at 
home  and  abroad,  she  still  stands.  Since  her  frail  be- 
ginning, two  centuries  ago,  dynasties  have  perished, 
kingdoms  have  been  overthrown,  and  Europe  nearly 
blotted  off  the  American  continent.  When  one  looks 
at  Alabama's  oldest  and  best  paper,  The  Mobile  Regis- 
ter, one  sees  a  list  of  places  of  worship  of  various  de- 
nominations, headed  by  the  Catholic  cathedral.  This  is 
right  and  proper.  The  Catholic  religion  came  hither 
when  the  red  men  were  offering  human  sacrifice.  She 
did  her  part  towards  encouraging  che  colonists  and 
humanizing  the  savages  before  the  founders  of  most  of 
the  sects  were  born.  The  city  was  begun  by  Catholic 
enterprise,  and  sustained  in  the  face  of  continual  peril 
by  the  great  Catholic  powers  of  Europe.  Her  founder, 
the  stately  and  reserved  Bienville,  of  obscure  Canadian 
24  369 


Alabama 

birth,  but  stainless  integrity,  a  fervent  Catholic,  was  the 
greatest  of  our  colonizers.  He  suffered  from  the  mis- 
understandings that  wait  upon  all  grand  enterprises. 
And,  like  so  many  other  benefactors  of  the  human  race, 
obloquy,  exile,  neglect,  were  the  rewards  meted  out  to 
him.  The  greatest  of  eleven  brothers,  every  one  of 
whom  served  his  country  by  sea  and  land,  he  sought 
out  new  regions  for  France  solely  that  new  nations 
might  be  won  for  Christ. 

Mobile,  then,  was  established  by  Catholic  genius 
and  preserved  by  Catholic  enterprise.  May  the  disci- 
ples of  the  true  religion  increase  and  multiply  in  this 
exquisite  region,  so  early  consecrated  to  the  true  God. 
May  they  be  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  best  princi- 
ples of  morality,  industry,  and  patriotism,  and  high  in 
the  order  of  merit  as  they  are  first  in  the  order  of  time. 
True  disciples  of  that  holy  Church  which  forbids  all 
that  is  evil,  commands  everything  good,  and  counsels 
whatever  is  perfect,  may  they  abound  in  every  grace, 
but,  above  all,  in  charity ;  that  it  may  be  said  of  them, 
as  of  their  prototypes  in  the  Gospel :  "  See  how  these 
Christians  love  one  another." 


G®-^ 


370 


MARY   OF    MODENA— HER    DESCENDANTS 
—  THE   JACOBITES 


Part   I 


I 

|he  traveler  in  Italy  who  loves  to  recall  the  days 
of  Attila,  and  the  poetry  and  romance  of  the 
Este  heroes,  of  whom  Tasso,  Ariosto,  and 
Dante  have  sung,  will  linger  with  interest  about  the 
stately  city  of  Modena,  once  the  ducal  seat  of  the 
Italian  branch  of  the  Estes.  The  Modenese  territory, 
now  absorbed  into  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  was  about 
fifty-six  miles  long  by  thirty-six  broad.  It  was  our 
good  fortune  to  traverse  this  land  of  song  and  story  in 
bright  August  weather.  The  capital,  on  the  ancient 
Via  Emilia,  north  from  Rome,  set  down  among  rich 
vineyards  and  waving  corn  fields,  is  indeed  "a  thing  of 
beauty."  The  surrounding  plain,  watered  by  sparkling 
streams,  is  studded  with  fruit  trees  that  bear  no  fruit, 
but  serve  as  props  for  the  luxuriant  vines  that  drape 
them,  and  are  festooned  from  one  tree  to  another. 
There  are  no  grand  natural  features,  but  one  cannot 
imagine  a  more  sweet  and  smiling  landscape.  The 
city  is  encompassed  by  ancient  ramparts,  now  used  as 
promenades,  like  the  walls  of  Derry.  From  these  the 
Appenines  are  visible  in  the  blue  distance,  in  fine  con- 
trast with  the  amber  maize  and  green  vineyards  below. 

37  i 


Mary  of  Modena  —  Her 

Like  most  Italian  cities,  Modena  has  a  wonderful 
cathedral.  But  the  classic  place  absorbed  our  attention 
chiefly  as  the  early  home  of  the  last  Catholic  Queen  of 
England,  Mary  Beatrice,  the  fairest  flower  of  the  ducal 
house  of  Este. 

Compared  with  this  Queen  of  Sorrows,  sculptures, 
porcelains,  and  tapestries,  awoke  in  us  but  little  enthu- 
siasm. In  the  glorious  cathedral  she  received  the 
great  sacrament,  whose  sublime  office  it  is  to  rouse  and 
fortify  the  gift  of  Faith  in  the  Christian  soul.  The 
fair  princess  often  trod  the  colonnaded  courtyard,  and 
her  languishing  dark  eyes  rested  admiringly  on  the 
gems  scattered  in  bewildering  abundance  about  the 
churches  and  museums.  The  noble  Campanile,  whose 
sweet  bells  summoned  the  faithful  to  prayer;  the 
modest  convent  within  whose  blessed  walls  she  had 
hoped  to  live  and  die;  the  palaces  of  patricians  of  lofty 
lineage;  the  cottages  of  the  poor,  in  which  squalor 
and  splendor  sometimes  met  —  all  were  objects  of  in- 
terest to  the  princess  who  bloomed  into  loveliness  in 
this  soft  and  salubrious  clime. 

It  is  curious  that  the  descendants  of  Forestus 
d'Est6,  who  distinguished  himself  against  Attila  and 
his  formidable  hordes  in  the  fifth  century,  should  be 
rival  claimants  for  the  crown  of  England  1300  years 
later  —  the  elder  branches  Guelph  (Wolf)  being  repre- 
sented by  the  elector  of  Hanover,  and  the  younger  by 
the  son  and  grandson  of  Mary  of  Modena,  the  titular 
King,  James  III.,  and  Scotland's  "Bonnie  Prince 
Charlie." 

372 


Descend  a  )its —  Tlic   Jacobites 

II 

This  Queen  was  born  in  the  ducal  palace  (now  the 
Palazzo  Reale),  October  5,  1658.  Her  parents  were 
Alfonso  d'Est^,  Duke  of  Modena,  and  Laura  Marti- 
nozzi,  a  Roman  lady,  niece  to  Cardinal  Mazarin.  She 
was  called  Mary,  after  the  Blessed  Mother,  and  Beatrice 
in  honor  of  her  illustrious  kinswoman,  St.  Beatrice,  of 
the  House  of  Este.  This  royal  saint  was  said  to  fulfill 
in  regard  to  the  reigning  family  an  office  analogous  to 
that  of  the  Irish  banshee.  She  used  to  knock  at  the 
palace  gate  three  days  before  the  death  of  every  mem- 
ber of  the  ducal  family. 

There  is  scarcely  a  grander  sight  in  Modena  than  the 
vast  and  magnificent  fa9ade  of  the  ducal  palace.  The 
ducal  arms  have  given  place  to  the  white  cross  of  Sa- 
voy. But,  as  in  Florence  one  still  sees  in  quiet  places 
the  arms  of  the  Medici,  so  in  Modena,  one  may 
easily  discern  here  and  there  the  crowned  eagle  of 
Est6. 

Mary  Beatrice  had  a  brother  to  whom  she  was  ten- 
derly attached.  The  children  had  a  very  rigid  training. 
The  prince  was  compelled  to  study  so  closely  that  it 
was  feared  he  would  injure  his  frail  constitution.  But 
this  had  no  weight  with  the  Spartan  mother.  "Better 
have  no  son,"  said  she,  "  than  a  son  destitute  of  wit  and 
merit."  The  future  Queen  of  England  sometimes  had 
a  box  on  the  ear  for  a  lapse  of  memory.  Both  were 
kept  at  an  awful  distance  by  their  mother.  But  they 
sometimes  eluded  her  vigilance.  Sweetmeats  were  for- 
bidden, lest  they  should  engender  gluttony.     In  after 

373 


Mary  of  Modena  —  Her 

years  Mary  Beatrice  said  :  "  I  advise  my  son  and  daugh- 
ter not  to  eat  sweetmeats,  but  I  do  not  forbid  them, 
knowing  these  things  would  be  given  them  by  stealth. 
.  .  .  This  would  accustom  them  to  habits  of  petty 
concealment,  perhaps  of  falsehood."  Wise  words  from 
a  royal  lady,  who,  throughout  her  whole  life,  was  re- 
markable for  truth  and  candor. 

Her  favorite  governess  became  a  Carmelite  nun,  and 
the  princess  grieved  so  much  on  losing  her  that  her 
mother  allowed  her  to  go  to  the  convent  as  a  boarder. 
Here  she  found  the  discipline  far  less  rigid  than  in  her 
stately  home,  and  was  happier  with  the  gentle  nuns 
than  with  her  severe  mother.  She  resolved  never  to 
leave  this  venerable  abode.  Latin,  French,  music,  and 
embroidery  were  among  her  studies,  and  she  showed 
much  taste  for  painting.  But  her  future  husband  was 
surprised  that  she  did  not  know  there  was  such  a  place 
as  York,  or  such  a  personage  as  the  duke  of  that  city. 
The  fame  of  her  beauty  and  intellect  soon  went  abroad, 
and  she  was  spoken  of  as  the  fairest  and  most  gifted 
princess  in  Christendom. 

The  ambassador  sent  from  England  to  find  a  wife 
for  the  sailor  prince,  James  Stuart,  declared  that  she 
was  the  only  person  who  could  make  him  happy.  He 
told  her  that  "  the  love  of  the  prince,  when  she  came 
to  know  him,  would  make  amends  for  anything  she  now 
deemed  a  grievance."  Unlike  her  predecessors,  Henri- 
etta Maria  of  France  and  Catharine  of  Braganza,  she 
was  not  asked  to  marry  a  prince  who  differed  from  her 
in  creed,  but  one  who  had  sacrificed  power,  influence, 

374 


Dcsceii da n ts  —  Th c   ya cob ites 

and  the  immense  incomes  of  high  offices  for  conscience 
sake  ;  who  might  almost  be  styled  a  confessor  in  view 
of  the  sacrifices  he  had  made  to  join  the  persecuted 
Church  of  Christ. 

Ill 
The  portraits  of  Mary  Beatrice  by  Lely  and  Knel- 
ler,  to  be  seen  in  several  British  palaces,  and  those  of  a 
later  date  in  French  collections,  bear  glowing  testimony 
to  the  wonderful  beauty  of  this  Mary  Stuart.  And, 
from  her  letters  and  other  sources,  some  idea  may  be 
formed  of  her  bright  mind  and  the  loveliness  of  her 
soul.  She  appears  to  have  been  utterly  devoid  of  van- 
ity. When  she  heard  that  England's  heir  sought  her 
hand,  she  declared  that  his  highness  must  seek  another 
bride,  that  she  had  given  herself  irrevocably  to  a  spouse 
who  could  neither  change  nor  die.  Never  did  woman 
struggle  so  hard  to  continue  "  in  maiden  meditation 
fancy  free."  She  resisted  her  mother,  her  uncle,  the 
whole  council. 

"  Spotless  without  and  innocent  within; 
She  feared  no  danger,  for  she  knew  no  sin." 

The  royal  beauty  gave  everyone  to  understand 
that  it  was  useless  to  ask  her  consent.  Her  aversion  to 
marriage,  and  her  grief  at  being  taken  from  the  convent, 
so  wrought  upon  her  mother  and  uncle  that  they  con- 
cluded to  dismiss  the  English  embassy.  The  proposals 
of  the  Earl  of  Peterboro  she  received  with  lofty  dis- 
dain, and  besought  him  "  to  avert  further  persecution 
of  a  maid  who  had  an  invincible  repugnance  to  mar- 
riage."    Had  the  stout  old  cavalier  been  a  man  of  less 

-^75 


Mary  of  Modeiia  —  Her 

determination,  he  would  have  given  up  in  despair.  He 
describes  her  as  "tall,  admirably  shaped;  her  complexion 
of  the  last  degree  of  fairness ;  her  hair,  brows,  and  eyes 
black  as  jet ;  the  eyes  so  full  of  light  and  sweetness 
that  they  did  dazzle  and  charm.  There  seemed  given 
to  them  sovereign  power  to  kill  and  to  save  . 
her  face  a  most  perfect  oval  .  .  .  with  all  the 
beauty  that  could  be  in  any  human  creature." 

Indeed,  it  required  the  intervention  of  the  highest 
personage  in  Christendom  to  induce  the  spirited  girl 
even  to  listen  to  the  advances  made  to  her  on  behalf  of 
England's  heir.     Her  countryman,  Muratori,  writes: 

"  As  the  thoughts  of  this  princess  were  directed  to  a  higher 
object,  she  being  resolved  to  consecrate  herself  to  God  in  a  mon- 
astery, it  was  almost  impossible  to  obtain  her  consent.  Nor  would 
the  difficulty  have  been  overcome  if  the  sovereign  pontiff,  consid- 
ering that  such  a  marriage  would  be  for  the  good  of  Christendom, 
had  not  interposed  his  paternal  exhortations." 

James  H.,  in  his  memoirs,  confirms  this  testimony. 
"  She  had  at  that  time  a  great  inclination  to  be  a  nun, 
insomuch  that  the  duchess,  her  mother,  was  obliged  to 
get  the  Pope  to  write  to  her  and  persuade  her  to  com- 
ply with  her  wish  as  most  conducive  to  the  service  of 
God  and  the  public  good."  It  was  then,  in  deference 
to  the  expressed  wishes  of  his  holiness,  that  the  royal 
maiden  of  fourteen  received  the  addresses  of  a  prince 
twenty-five  years  her  senior. 

IV 

Lord  Peterboro  speaks  of  the  order  and  magnifi- 
cence of  the  Modenese  court,  its  splendid  ceremonies, 

376 


Descendants  —  The   Jacobites 

its  picturesque  gardens,  and  expresses  surprise  at  the 
grandeur  of  its  appointments.  September  30th  the 
princess  was  married,  by  proxy,  at  a  Nuptial  Mass. 
During  the  balls,  pageants,  and  rejoicing  that  followed, 
the  bride  wept  constantly,  dreading  the  hour  that  was 
to  take  her  from  her  beloved  home.  A  grand  Te  Deum 
was  sung  in  the  cathedral  for  the  marriage  that  had  all 
but  broken  her  heart.  Her  dower  was  eighty  thousand 
pounds,  an  enormous  sum  at  that  date.  She  was  the 
last  foreign  princess  that  brought  a  dower  to  England. 
The  kings  who  supplanted  the  Stuarts  married  into 
poor  families,  and  brides  and  grooms  have  had  to  be 
paid  to  come  to  England  to  marry  their  relations,  as 
the  brides  of  George  III.  and  George  IV.;  Leopold,  who 
married  the  Princess  Charlotte,  and  Albert,  husband  of 
Queen  Victoria. 

It  would  not  be  possible  to  imagine  a  more 
wretched  bride  than  Mary  Beatrice.  For  three  days 
and  nights  she  cried  and  screamed,  so  that  her  strength 
gave  way,  and  she  was  kept  in  bed  by  force.  She  in- 
sisted that  her  mother  should  accompany  her  to  Eng- 
land, and  made  her  brother  come  two  days'  journey. 
On  reaching  England  she  was  met  by  her  husband,  to 
whom  she  showed  much  dislike.  Her  swarthy  brother- 
in-law  found  more  favor  in  her  eyes.  "  I  loved  King 
Charles  very  dearly,"  she  said,  "even  before  I  became 
attached  to  my  lord,  the  Duke  of  York."  The  fine 
manners  and  gracious  ways  of  Charles  II.  captivated 
many  a  more  experienced  personage.  The  day  came 
when  she  condemned  as  excessive  her  attachment  to 

377 


Mary  of  Modcna  —  Her 

her  husband,  which  she  feared  might  come  between  her 
God  and  herself.  Excessive  in  a  bad  sense  it  never 
was,  for  it  never  impeded  her  spiritual  progress,  or 
caused  her  to  neglect  the  duties  of  her  exalted  station. 
To  the  close  of  her  checkered  career,  she  practised 
with  ever  increasing  perfection  the  virtues  she  had 
learned  in  her  early  convent  home. 

Mary  Beatrice  was  but  little  over  sixteen  when  her 
first  child  was  born.  Although  the  duke  had  explained 
to  her  that  the  king,  lords,  and  commons,  had  deter- 
mined that  her  children,  as  the  property  of  the  State, 
should  be  reared  Protestants,  the  young  mother  sent 
for  her  confessor  and  persuaded  him  to  baptize  her 
babe.  Charles  II.  ignored  this,  and  had  the  child  re- 
baptized  by  a  Protestant  bishop,  to  the  chagrin  of  the 
girl-mother,  who  feared  she  had  been  accessory  to  a 
sacrilege. 

The  youth,  beauty,  and  edifying  life  of  this  prin- 
cess, won  her  universal  esteem.  The  court  over  which 
she  presided  at  St.  James  was  a  contrast  to  the  noisy, 
disorderly  court  of  the  king.  The  heirs  that  followed 
James  were  mostly  at  variance  with  the  crown,  as  Anne 
with  William  and  Mary,  George  I.  with  his  son,  George 
II.,  and  Frederick,  Prince  of  Wales.  But  no  one  ever 
questioned  the  fidelity  of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  York 
to  the  king's  interest.  Charles  II.  used  to  say  that 
"the  most  loyal  and  virtuous  of  his  courtiers  were  to 
be  found  in  his  brother's  circle  at  St.  James's  palace." 
The  duchess  wrote  English  far  more  correctly  than  her 
English   stepdaughters,   Mary  and  Anne.      She  loved 

378 


Descend a)its  —  ZV/r   yacohites 

the  society  of  authors,  artists,  and  musicians,  always  to 
be  found  about  the  Stuart  princes.  One  of  her  maids, 
Anne  Kingsmill,  was  celebrated  by  Pope  as  Ardelia. 
Another,  Anne  Killigrew,  was  immortalized  by  Dryden 
in  the  Ode  beginning  with  that  exquisite  line: 
"Thou  youngest  virgin  daughter  of  the  skies." 

The  aged  Waller,  who  had  written  for  Cromwell 
and  Charles  II.,  was  encouraged  by  this  cultured  prin- 
cess to  continue  to  invoke  the  muse.  Charles  II.,  who 
was  not  devoid  of  literary  taste,  remarked  that  the 
"Ode  to  Cromwell"  was  better  than  the  Ode  to  him- 
self, and  Waller  aptly  rejoined:  "Does  not  your 
majesty  know  that  we  poets  always  succeed  better  in 
fiction  than  in  fact?"  Waller  presented  to  Mary 
Beatrice  his  poems  which  celebrated  the  beauties  of  a 
former  age,  and  addressed  to  her  these  elegant  lines: 

"Thus  writ  we  then;  your  brighter  eyes  inspire 
A  nobler  flame,  and  raise  our  genius  higher; 
While  we  your  wit  and  early  knowledge  fear. 
To  our  productions  we  become  severe. 
Your  matchless  beauty  gives  our  fancy  wing  — 
Your  judgment  makes  us  careful  how  we  sing: 
Lines  not  composed  as  heretofore  in  haste. 
Polished  like  marble,  shall  like  marble  last; 
And  make  you  through  as  many  ages  shine, 
As  Tasso  has  the  heroes  of  your  line." 

Dryden,  in  dedicating  to  her  his  "State  of  Inno- 
cence," compliments  her  on  her  descent  from  princes 
immortalized  more  by  their  patronage  of  Tasso  and 
Ariosto  than  by  their  heroic  deeds.  He  assures  "the 
radiant  d'Estd-"  that  "she  is  never  seen  without  being 

379 


Mary  of  Modciia        Her 

blessed,  and  blesses  all  who  see  her,"  that  "  although 
every  one  feels  the  power  of  her  charms,  she  is  adored 
with  the  deepest  veneration,  that  of  silence  ;  for  she  is 
placed  above  all  mortal  wishes  by  her  virtues  and  ex- 
alted station."  The  mind  was  well  fixed  on  heaven 
that  was  not  inflated  with  pride  by  such  praises  from 
"  Glorious  John  "  and  the  greatest  wits  of  the  age. 

V 

England  was.  for  the  Modenese  princess,  a  land  of 
persecution.  Before  the  darts  of  envy  and  calumny 
were  aimed  at  herself,  she  suffered  in  her  husband.  A 
powerful  party  had  determined  to  exclude  the  Duke  of 
York  from  the  throne  by  arraying  against  him  the  preju- 
dices of  the  nation,  and  conspiracies  and  "  Popish  plots  " 
became  the  order  of  the  day.  The  hideous  ravings  of 
Titus  Oates  are  too  well  known  to  need  repetition  here. 
Twice  was  the  duke  banished  to  Scotland ;  once  he 
was  an  exile  in  Belgium.  His  devoted  wife  shared  all 
his  wanderings.  Her  bitterest  enemy  has  not  dared  to 
accuse  her  of  the  slightest  impropriety  of  word  or  deed. 
When  she  was  about  eighteen,  the  celebrated  Jesuit, 
Colombiere,  came  to  England  as  her  preacher  (October 
15,  1676),  and  was  domesticated  with  her  family  at  St. 
James.  This  venerable  priest,  who  may  yet  be  raised 
on  our  altars, wrote  to  his  brethren  in  France:  "  I  serve 
a  princess  who  is  good  in  every  sense,  of  exemplary 
piety,  and  great  sweetness."  Though  an  honored  guest 
at  the  palace,  Colombiere  led  the  life  of  a  hermit.  His 
bed   was  a  mattress  spread  upon  the  ground,  and  his 

380 


Descendants  —  The   yacobites 

fare  the  coarsest.  He  was  treated  so  shamefully  by  the 
anti-Catholic  section  that  he  styled  England  "the 
country  of  crosses."  He  was  arrested,  and,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  lords,  banished  by  the  king.  His  office 
to  the  duchess,  and  the  fact  that  he  had  been  confided 
to  the  royal  hospitality,  doubtless  saved  him  from  mar- 
tyrdom. He  returned  to  France  in  1679,  quite  broken 
in  health.  He  taught  the  devotion  to  the  Sacred  Heart, 
which  he  had  learned  from  his  spiritual  daughter.  Blessed 
Margaret  Mary,  to  many  Catholics  in  London,  includ- 
ing Mary  of  Modena,  who  became  the  first  royal  peti- 
tioner for  a  Mass  and  proper  office  in  honor  of  the 
Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus. 

The  enemies  of  the  duke  and  duchess  were  pre- 
paring to  force  them  into  exile  once  more,  when  an  un- 
looked-for event  saved  them  from  this  indignity.  Their 
chief  enemy,  the  infamous  Titus  Oates,  was  a  welcome 
guest  at  the  court  of  their  son  and  daughter,  William 
and  Mary,  in  Holland.  When  King  of  England,  Will- 
iam allowed  Titus  Oates  a  considerable  pension. 

VI 

On  the  morning  of  February  2d,  Charles  II.  arose, 
after  a  restless  night.  His  health  had  been  failing,  and 
he  no  longer  took  his  morning  rambles  in  the  park, 
where  his  loving  subjects  used  to  watch  him  throwing 
grains  to  his  pet  birds,  or  playing  with  his  small  span- 
iels—  (the  species  is  still  called  King  Charles).  The 
manners  of  the  king  were  as  polished  as  his  morals  were 
reprehensible,  and  never  was  a  sovereign  of   England 

381 


Mary  of  Modcna  —  Her 

more  sincerely  beloved.  While  dressing,  his  face  be- 
came ghastly,  and  his  courtiers  were  appalled  to  see 
him  fall.  As  soon  as  possible,  the  queen  and  the  duke 
and  duchess  were  on  the  spot.  Knowing  that  her 
brother-in-law  was  a  Catholic  at  heart,  Mary  Beatrice 
besought  her  husband  to  have  the  royal  patient  recon- 
ciled to  the  Church.  The  king  and  his  brother  were 
devotedly  attached  to  each  other,  and  James  declared 
that  he  would  hazard  every  peril  rather  than  fail  in  his 
duty  to  one  he  so  tenderly  loved.  The  dying  man 
having  declined  the  services  of  the  Protestant  prelates, 
James  asked  if  he  would  accept  those  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  "Ah,"  he  replied,  "  I  would  give  anything  in 
the  world  to  have  a  priest."  James  offered  to  bring 
one.  "  For  God's  sake,  do,  brother ;  but  will  it  not  ex- 
pose you  to  danger?" 

"  If  it  costs  me  my  life  I  will  bring  one,"  said  James. 
It  was  a  capital  crime  to  admit  a  proselyte  to  the 
Catholic  Church,  nor  was  it  easy  to  find  a  priest  suited 
to  the  perilous  service.  Father  Huddlestone,  who  had 
saved  the  king's  life  thirty-five  years  before,  was  brought 
to  his  bedside  disguised  as  a  minister.  He  heard  his 
confession,  made  him  partaker  of  the  blessings  the 
Church  reserves  for  her  departing  children,  and  with- 
drew as  quietly  as  he  had  entered. 

The  king's  patience  in  extreme  pain  surprised  every 
one.  Mary  Beatrice  said  it  was  impossible  for  anyone 
to  face  death  with  greater  composure.  He  was  most 
grateful  for  the  least  service,  and  regretted  the  fatigue 
which  etiquette  imposed  on  the  courtiers  that  crowded 

382 


Descendants  —  Tlic   Jacobites 

his  chamber.  Perhaps  he  is  the  only  man  who  ever 
apologized  for  the  length  of  time  it  took  him  to  die. 
"  I  ought  to  apologize,  gentlemen,"  he  struggled  to  say, 
"  for  the  unconscionably  long  time  I  am  taking  to  die, 
but  it  is  the  last  time  I  shall  trouble  you."  This  ex- 
quisite graciousness  won  him  the  love  of  his  people. 
Even  the  servant  girls  in  London  put  on  some  em- 
blem of  mourning  at  the  death  of  "  the  merry  monarch." 

Mary  Beatrice  was  so  grieved  for  the  event  that  made 
her  a  queen  (February  6,  1685)  that  she  was  afraid  to 
show  her  sorrow  lest  she  might  be  accused  of  hypoc- 
risy. His  kindness  had  won  her  heart,  and  she  con- 
sidered the  crown  dearly  bought  by  the  loss  of  such  a 
brother.  Evelyn  says  that  she  had  comported  herself  so 
decently  since  her  arrival  in  England  that  she  was  uni- 
versally beloved.  The  royal  couple  ascended  the 
throne  peaceably,  but  she  took  no  pleasure,  she  said, 
"  in  the  envied  name  of  queen." 

And,  indeed,  how  could  she?  Her  three  children 
were  buried  in  Westminster  Abbey  ;  she  was  a  childless 
mother.  The  audacious  Catharine  Sedley,  who  had 
neither  grace  nor  beauty,  appeared  to  have  supplanted 
her  in  her  husband's  affections.  James  \\.  did  hon- 
estly try  to  reform  the  court.  He  invited  the  Sed- 
ley to  retire.  Unfortunately,  men  who  posed  as  his 
friends  encouraged  the  vicious  connection,  hoping  that 
the  courtesan's  strict  Protestantism  (?)  might  even  wean 
him  from  the  unpopular  religion.  Even  Lady  Roches- 
ter, the  king's  sister-in-law,  ostentatiously  patronized 
the  Sedley  "  for  the  good  of  the  church  !  "    The  injured 


Mary  of  JModena  —  Her 

wife  was  not  afraid  to  reproach  the  king:  "Sir,"  said 
she,  "is  it  possible  that  for  the  sake  of  one  passion  you 
would  lose  the  merit  of  all  your  sacrifices?"  Again  she 
threatened  to  leave  him  and  enter  a  convent,  "  Give 
me  my  dower,"  she  said,  with  righteous  indignation, 
"make  her  queen,  but  let  me  never  see  her  more." 

Influenced  by  his  queen,  and  some  priests  and 
Catholic  peers,  James  soon  shook  off  this  degrading 
yoke.  He  commanded  the  Sedley  to  leave  Whitehall, 
but  the  infamous  creature  declared  that  "  she  was  a 
free-born  Englishwoman  and  would  live  where  she 
pleased."  She  affected  to  regard  the  king's  resolution 
as  an  act  of  persecution,  and  styled  herself  a  "  Protes- 
tant victim."  At  last  she  was  created  Countess  of 
Dorchester  and  was  bribed  by  a  present  of  a  large  es- 
tate in  Ireland  (whose?)  to  withdraw.  It  is  a  coinci- 
dence that  the  king's  great  enemy,  his  nephew  and  son- 
in-law,  William  of  Orange,  bribed,  in  a  similar  manner, 
the  infamous  Elizabeth  Villiers.  This  glorious,  pious, 
and  immortal  prince  made  Villiers  Countess  of  Orkney, 
and  gave  her  valuable  estates  in  Ireland  (again,  whose  ?). 
The  British  aristocracy  is  largely  descended  from  sim- 
ilar additions  to  its  ranks  made  by  infatuated  vicious 
monarchs. 

Despite  his  lamentable  weakness,  James  revered  his 
virtuous  queen  and  was  proud  of  her  beauty,  grace,  and 
dignity.  The  medals  he  had  struck  in  her  honor  are 
genuine  works  of  art.  Her  coronation  medal  represents 
her  in  flowing  drapery,  seated  on  a  rock,  her  hair  negli- 
gently bound  up  in  a  Grecian  fillet,  her  contour  of  classic 

384 


Descendants  — 'The  Jacobites 

beauty  and  simplicity.  The  inscription  is  most  happily 
chosen  from  the  address  of  Eneas  to  Venus :  "  O  Dea 
Certe  "  (O  assuredly  a  goddess).  James  bestowed  im- 
mense pains  on  her  coronation  diadem.  It  has  been 
used  for  all  succeeding  queen-consorts,  and  is  by  far 
the  most  graceful  crown  exhibited  in  the  Tower  of 
London,  and  the  richest,  save  that  of  Queen  Victoria, 
Her  ivory  sceptre  is  surmounted  by  a  dove  of  white 
onyx.  The  coronation  took  place  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  April  23,  1685. 

James  II.  wished  to  inaugurate  his  reign  by  grant- 
ing liberty  of  conscience,  and  he  at  once  liberated  sev- 
eral thousand  Catholics  and  Dissenters,  and  1,500 
Quakers.  The  queen  performed  a  gracious  act  of 
mercy  by  releasing  all  the  prisoners  in  jail  throughout 
the  realm  for  small  debts,  taking  on  herself  the  pay- 
ment of  every  debt  not  exceeding  five  pounds. 

VII 

The  Duke  of  Monmouth,  reputed  son  of  Charles 
II.  and  an  abandoned  Welsh  woman,  accused 
James  II.  of  having  poisoned  the  late  king,  and  other 
high  crimes,  and  proclaimed  himself  champion  of  the 
Protestant  cause.  Monmouth  was  defeated  at  Sedg- 
moor,  July  6,  1685.  He  was  tried,  found  guilty,  and 
sentenced  to  death,  as  he  richly  deserved,  on  more 
counts  than  one.  He  wrote  to  the  queen,  and  it  may 
be  owing  to  her  influence  that  the  king  imprudently 
granted  him  an  audience.  His  crimes,  however,  were 
25  385 


Mary  of  Modena  —  Her 

of  such  a  nature  that  James,  though  impelled  to  show 
the  base  creature  mercy,  could  not  pardon  him. 

Most  of  the  plots  against  James  were  hatched  at 
The  Hague  by  his  nephew,  the  Prince  of  Orange,  whose 
wife,  his  dearly  loved  child,  joined  in  the  conspiracy. 
Documentary  evidence  proves  that  Mary  and  Anne, 
subsequently  queens-regnant  of  England,  are  among  the 
basest  women  of  history  —  "  the  elder  and  the  younger 
Tullia."  They  never  made  the  slightest  complaint  of 
their  stepmother,  who  was  young  enough  to  be  their 
companion,  even  in  extenuation  of  their  vile  conduct  to- 
wards her.  William  and  Mary  were  desirous  of  reign- 
ing in  England.  Anne  did  not  choose  to  be  set  aside 
for  a  brother.  It  was  agreed  by  these  conspirators  that 
if  the  queen  should  bear  a  son  he  must  be  represented 
as  spurious.  A  daughter  might  rank  as  a  real  princess. 
On  Trinity  Sunday,  June  loth,  ever  after  called  by  the 
Jacobites  "White-Rose  Day,"  the  unfortunate  Prince 
of  Wales  was  born.  Later,  his  sister  Anne  coined  for 
him  a  name  which  had  more  to  do  with  his  exclusion 
from  the  throne  of  his  ancestors  than  any  other  circum- 
stance, "The  Pretender." 

"The  charge  respecting  a  spurious  heir,"  writes  Sir 
James  Mackintosh,  "was  one  of  the  most  flagrant 
wrongs  ever  done  to  a  sovereign  or  father.  The  son  of 
James  II.  was,  perhaps,  the  only  prince  in  Europe  of 
whose  blood  there  could  be  no  rational  doubt,  con- 
sidering the  verification  of  his  birth,  and  the  unim- 
peachable life  of  his  mother."  Yet  William  of  Orange 
gave,  as  one  of  his  reasons  for  invading  England,  "  to 

386 


Descendants — The  Jacobites 

cause  inquiry  to  be  made  by  Parliament  into  the  birtli 
of  a  supposed  Prince  of  Wales"  —  an  inquiry  never 
made.  William  III,  afterwards  offered  to  adopt  the 
unfortunate  prince  as  his  heir ! 

The  most  friendly  relations  had  always  existed  be- 
tween the  calumniators  and  the  king  and  queen.  The 
king  announced  the  birth  of  "  the  child  of  prayers  and 
vows"  to  William  in  a  letter  indorsed  :  "  For  my  son, 
the  Prince  of  Orange."  The  queen  addressed  Mary  by 
her  pet  name,  '■'  My  Dear  Lemon."  Neither  the  king 
nor  queen  seem  to  notice  the  coarse,  vulgar  libels  and 
indecent  lampoons  that  issued  from  the  Dutch  press, 
nor  could  they  be  taught  to  suspect  treachery  in  their 
"  Orange  and  Lemon  "  till  it  came  on  them  as  a  fact. 
The  birth  of  the  poor  child  : 

"  The  young  blooming  flower  of  the  auld  royal  tree," 

regarded  by  James  as  the  most  auspicious  event  of  his 
life,  precipitated  his  ruin. 

VIII 

No  CHARACTER  in  history  has  been  more  reviled  or 
misunderstood  —  not  even  his  great-grandmother,  Mary 
Stuart  —  than  James  II.  Even  in  Catholic  Ireland,  the 
name  of  this  unlucky  prince,  who  renounced  for  the 
Catholic  faith  three  crowns  and  an  empire  on  which  the 
sun  sets  not,  is  held  in  execration.  As  one  stands  to- 
day by  the  Boyne  water,  in  a  region  of  romantic  beauty, 
beneath  the  shadow  of  the  lying  obelisk  that  marks  the 
bloody  field,  the  peasant  will  scornfully  point  to   the 

-.87 


Mary  of  Modena — Her 

hill  of  Donore,  on  which  James  II.  stood,  to  watch  the 
combat  he  did  not  share,  and  the  road  he  took  to  flee 
from  danger  before  the  battle  was  over.  Yet  of  this 
prince  the  great  Turenne  had  said  :  "  He  knew  not  fear." 
He  had  to  the  full  the  courage  of  his  convictions,  and 
made  heroic  sacrifices  to  preserve  the  faith  to  his  de- 
scendants. 

We  will  not  say  "  every  school-boy  knows,"  for 
school  boys  a  la  Macaulay  we  have  not  found  to  be 
common.  But  it  is  pretty  well  known  that  the  early 
career  of  Charles  II.  was  most  stirring  and  romantic.  It 
is  not,  however,  equally  well  known  that  his  unfortu- 
nate brother's  early  story  is  almost  equally  picturesque 
and  dramatic.  He  was  born  at  St.  James  Palace,  1633, 
and  baptized  by  Archbishop  Laud.  He  was  the  favor- 
ite son  of  his  parents,  Charles  I.  and  Henrietta  Maria, 
and  was  especially  beloved  by  every  member  of  his 
family.  When  a  mere  child  he  took  part  in  the  troubles 
of  his  parents,  and  at  the  age  of  nine  marched  to  battle 
at  his  father's  side,  and  beheld  war's  alarms  with  the 
cool  demeanor  of  a  veteran.  Four  years  later  he  was 
imprisoned  by  the  Parliamentarians,  and  Cromwell,  who 
visited  the  brave  and  beautiful  boy,  knelt  and  kissed  his 
hand.  His  escape  from  the  enemies  of  his  house  and 
his  adventures  as  a  soldier  of  fortune  would  afford  mat- 
ter for  a  stirring  drama. 

Unless  his  early  portraits  belie  him,  James,  like  his 
parents,  was  remarkably  handsome,  and  bore  much  re- 
semblance to  his  great-grandmother,  Mary  Stuart.  In 
this  respect  he  was  a  marked  contrast  to  his  swarthy 

388 


Descendants  —  The   Jacobites 

brother,  Charles  II.  He  was  better  educated  than 
princes  commonly  are,  spoke  and  wrote  several  lan- 
guages, and  had  much  talent  as  an  engineer.  He  was 
one  of  the  greatest  naval  warriors  his  country  has  pro- 
duced, and  the  ablest  financier  of  his  age. 

When  about  twenty-seven  he  married  Anne  Hyde, 
maid  of  honor  to  his  sister  Mary.  This  princess  suborned 
false  witnesses  against  the  bride ;  her  own  father.  Claren- 
don, proposed  she  should  be  sent  to  the  Tower  and  be- 
headed (!)  for  her  presumption  in  marrying  the  heir  of 
Charles  II.  But  James,  when  convinced  of  her  inno- 
cence, treated  her  as  his  wife.  It  was  of  the  children 
born  of  this  impolitic  marriage  that  he  said  in  his 
deepest  distress:  "God  help  me!  My  own  children 
forsake  me  I"  Anne  Hyde  became  a  Catholic  toward 
the  close  of  her  life.  She  gave  her  reasons  in  a  long 
letter  to  her  father,  entitled:  "Declaration  of  the 
Duchess  of  York  to  the  Earl  of  Clarendon." 

James  followed  her  example,  and  this  is  the  head 
and  front  of  all  his  offending.  As  lord  high  admiral 
he  showed  proficiency  in  every  branch  of  naval  science. 
June  3,  1665,  the  fleet  under  his  command  gained  the 
greatest  naval  victory  ever  gained  by  England.  Nor 
was  this  the  only  time  he  conquered  the  Dutch,  and 
caused  the  "meteor  flag"  to  be  respected.  This 
year  the  plague  broke  out.  On  September  2,  1666, 
the  great  fire  began;  it  lasted  four  days.  Charles  II. 
and  his  brother  worked  energetically  to  stop  its  rav- 
ages, and  owing  to  their  energy  Westminster  Abbey, 
the   Tower,  and   other   public   buildings   were   saved. 

389 


Mary  of  Mode  no  —  Jfer 

James  encouraged  the  people  to  keep  up  their  ancient 
sports.  The  old  May-pole,  around  which  the  Lon- 
doners had  been  accustomed  to  gambol  in  the  days  of 
his  Tudor  and  Stuart  ancestors,  had  been  taken  down 
by  Cromwell's  Parliament.  James  erected  a  new  one, 
134  feet  high,  in  front  of  St.  Mary's  Church  on  the 
Strand,  and  watched  with  delight  the  dancers  in  mot- 
ley attire  frisking  about  the  graceful  column  to  the 
music  of  trumpet,  pipe,  and  tabor,  the  crowds  shouting 
themselves  hoarse  in  frantic  glee,  to  show  their  loyalty. 
He  established  colonies  in  America,  India,  and  Africa. 
The  Empire  State,  and  the  largest  city  in  America  are 
named  from  him  —  New  York. 

The  Duke's  success,  so  gratifying  to  national  pride, 
made  him  the  idol  of  the  people.  But  when  he  became 
a  Catholic  his  popularity  vanished.  The  hosannas  of 
to-day  became  "  crucify  him"  to-morrow.  On  account 
of  the  extreme  bigotry  of  the  people,  stirred  up  by  evil 
men,  this  change  of  the  right  hand  of  the  Most  High, 
was  as  a  sin  unto  death  which  his  countrymen  never 
forgave,  and  for  the  pardon  of  which  they  said  in  deed, 
if  not  in  word,  "  Let  not  any  man  ask." 

As  heir-presumptive,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should 
marry.  His  choice  fell  on  a  private  gentlewoman,  but 
Charles  H.  would  not  hear  of  such  a  connection.  "  It 
would  be  intolerable,"  said  he,  "that  you  should  make 
a  fool  of  yourself  a  second  time."  James  was  still  one 
of  the  most  elegant  gentlemen  in  Europe.  Two  years 
after  the  death  of  Anne  Hyde,  the  Earl  of  Peterboro 
brought  his  royal  highness  the  most  beautiful  princess 

390 


Descendants  —  The   yacobltes 

of  Europe,  from  the  ducal  court  of  Modena,  and  Mary 
Beatrice  became  the  unwilling  bride  of  a  prince  twenty- 
five  years  her  senior. 


Part  II 


IX 

The  treachery  of  his  own  kith  and  kin  was  greater 
than  James  or  his  consort  ever  knew.  Long  after  they 
had  passed  away,  the  letters  of  his  daughter  to  her  sis- 
ter in  Holland  came  to  light.  Of  this  precious  pair  and 
their  husbands,  Anne  and  George  of  Denmark  were 
lowest  in  the  intellectual  scale.  "I  have  tried  him 
drunk  and  I  have  tried  him  sober,"  said  Charles  II., 
"  and  I  never  could  find  anything  in  him."  When 
George  heard  a  piece  of  news  he  used  to  say:  "  Est-il 
possible?"  On  his  desertion  to  the  Orange  standard, 
King  James  exclaimed  :  "What?  Est-il-possible,  gone? 
In  truth,  a  good  trooper  would  be  a  greater  loss."  The 
king  was  mistaken.  As  husband  of  Anne,  George  had 
some  importance  at  this  crisis.  James  might  have 
known  that  George  would  not  have  gone  had  it  not 
been  Anne's  intention  to  follow. 

Anne  was  but  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  her  favorite, 
Lady  Churchill.  Her  letters  to  her  sisters  at  this 
epoch  are  among  the  vilest  that  ever  emanated  from 
a  female  pen.  That  Mary  and  her  husband  encouraged 
her  to  write  such  letters  is  an  indelible  stain  on  their 
characters.      They    loathed    the   writer   though    they 

391 


Mary  of  Modena  —  Her 

profited  by  her  treachery,  which  was  no  worse  than  their 
own.  A  fierce  Scotchman  mercilessly  satirized  the 
base  quartet : 

"  There's  Mary  the  daughter  and  Willy  the  cheater, 
There's  Geordie  the  drinker  and  Annie  the  eater." 

William  did  not  enter  Whitehall  till  his  wife  had 
first  domesticated  herself  there.  By  this  and  in  other 
ways  he  endeavored  to  throw  the  odium  of  the  dis- 
graceful doings  he  had  encouraged,  if  not  inspired,  on 
the  daughters  of  his  uncle,  Mary  and  Anne. 

December  9,  1688,  the  last  Catholic  queen  of  Eng- 
land fled  from  its  inhospitable  shores,  disguised  as  a 
washerwoman,  and  bearing  in  her  trembling  arms,  as 
a  bundle  of  clothes,  her  son,  "  the  dearest  gift  of 
heaven."  The  agitated  king  confided  mother  and  babe 
to  Count  Lauzan,  to  convey  them  to  France,  The 
party  escaped  through  the  gardens  of  Whitehall,  and 
crossed  the  swollen  Thames  in  a  frail  boat,  at  the  peril 
of  their  lives.  Their  coach  was  at  a  neighboring  inn 
and  it  took  some  time  to  fetch  it.  For  about  an  hour 
the  poor  queen  with  her  precious  babe  stood  under  the 
walls  of  the  old  church  at  Lambeth,  in  an  agony  of 
suspense.  No  other  shelter  was  to  be  found  in  this 
bleak  neighborhood  from  the  fierce  wind  and  the  bitter 
cold.  Quite  recently  we  stood  on  the  same  spot,  and 
thought  of  the  beautiful  mother  and  the  babe  sleeping 
peaceably  in  her  arms,  unconscious  of  his  woes.  Sixteen 
years  before,  she  had  come  into  England  in  regal  splen- 
dor, the  virgin-bride  of  York's  great  admiral.  Now  she 
was  retracing  her  steps  in  misery  and  terror. 

392 


Descendants  —  The   yacobites 

James  had  sent  a  yacht  manned  by  three  Irish  cap- 
tains, to  bear  his  treasures  to  the  French  coast.  Years 
after,  she  described  this  as  a  most  doleful  journey,  and 
wondered  how  she  had  lived  through  it.  They  reached 
France  December  nth.  The  unfortunate  husband, 
whose  action  at  this  crisis  was  like  the  action  of  a 
maniac,  speedily  followed.  Between  the  agony  caused 
by  the  shameless  desertion  of  him  by  his  own  children, 
and  the  hemorrhages  that  nearly  terminated  his  exist- 
ence, his  intellect  was  undoubtedly  disordered  and  the 
victory  gained  over  him  by  "  his  son,  the  Prince  of  Or- 
ange," was  the  basest  triumph  ever  won  by  a  man. 

On  the  historic  spot  on  which  the  saintly  queen, 
with  streaming  eyes  and  broken  heart,  looked  her  last 
upon  the  great  city  in  which  she  had  been  crowned  and 
anointed  queen, 

"  Sad  memory  brings  the  light  of  other  days  around  us." 

All  the  actors  in  the  mournful  drama  have  long 
since  moldered  into  dust.  But  the  historian,  albeit 
he  possesses  not  the  wand  of  a  magician,  can  summon 
them,  every  one,  from  the  misty  past,  and  hear  them 
speak,  and  see  them  act  their  respective  parts,  whether 
mean  or  dignified,  or  simply  indifferent.  And  having 
weighed  in  a  balance  their  words  and  deeds,  who  would 
not  rather  have  been  the  lone  queen,  with  pure  hands 
and  stainless  conscience,  fleeing  in  the  dead  of  the 
night  before  her  implacable  enemies,  than  either  of  her 
triumphant  stepdaughters  who  purchased  exaltation  at 
so  awful  a  price  ? 

393 


Mary  of  Mo  den  a  —  Her 

X 

By  ORDER  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  most  courteous  atten- 
tions were  lavished  on  the  exile  queen.  But  nothing 
could  comfort  her  while  she  was  uncertain  as  to  the 
safety  of  James.  Her  joy  was  perfect  when  he  joined 
her,  after  many  painful  adventures.  From  the  moment 
he  uttered  the  sorrowful  plaint,  "  God  help  me !  My 
own  children  forsake  me  !  "  his  actions  were  strange,  and 
his  speech  rambling  and  incoherent.  His  greatest  mis- 
take was  to  leave  his  kingdom  without  striking  a  blow. 
Had  he  made  such  a  stand  as  he  would  have  made 
thirty  years  earlier,  his  descendants  might  still  occupy 
the  throne  of  England.  But  the  period  of  action  for 
him  had  begun  when  he  was  a  child,  and  he  was  prema- 
turely worn  out,  though  but  fifty-seven  years  old.  Be- 
sides, the  conduct  of  his  nearest  relatives  had  shattered 
his  brain,  and  made  him  powerless  to  resist.  Allud- 
ing to  the  pathetic  circumstances  of  the  unfortunate 
king,  a  modern  poet  says : 

"  We  thought  of  ancient  Lear  with  tempest  overhead  : 
Discrowned,     betrayed,    abandoned  —  but    nought    could 

break  his  will, 
Not  Mary,  his  false  Regan  —  nor  Anne,  his  Goneril." 

But  the  will  of  the  modern  Lear  was  broken  and 
his  power  to  recuperate  annihilated  by  the  treachery  of 
his  Regan  and  Goneril.  He  was  now  no  match  for  the 
foreign  prince  who  withstood  him  with  an  army  of  de- 
serters and  foreigners. 

The  grand  castle  of  St.  Germain's  was  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  the  royal  exiles  and  here  they  lived  in  peace 

394 


J)cscc)nh7i/(s  —  The    yacuhilcs 

and  happiness,  always  hoping  to  regain  their  rights. 
The  news  from  England  was  not  cheering.  Catholic 
Churches  were  fired.  The  baby  prince  was  burned  in 
effigy.  Into  our  own  time,  on  days  dedicated  to  the 
small  hero  of  Nassau,  the  Pretender  and  the  Pope  have 
gone  to  the  stake  together.  "  Even  political  expedi- 
ency," says  Mazare,  "  should  not  be  suffered  to  outrage 
nature."  But  nature  was  outraged  in  a  hundred  ways 
by  the  unnatural  sisters  of  the  baby  prince. 

The  medals  of  the  dual  reign  of  William  and  Mary 
beneath  criticism  as  works  of  art,  caricature  the  child 
whose  unwelcome  appearance  was  to  deprive  his  am- 
bitious sisters  and  brother  of  the  reversion  of  a  triple 
diadem :  nor  is  his  helpless  father  spared.  In  the 
numismatic  collection  of  this  period  is  a  medal  which 
represents  James  II.  moving  with  giant  strides,  flinging 
aside  his  crown  and  sceptre,  a  Jesuit  pushing  onward 
with  him ;  the  king  carries  his  babe  —  another  proof 
that  the  designer  knew  the  child  was  his —  the  motto, 
profanely  taken  from  the  liturgy,  is  "  Ite,  Missa  Est." 

James  made  many  efforts  to  recover  his  crown.  In 
1690  his  lieutenant  in  Ireland  reminded  him  that  Ire- 
land still  held  out  for  him.  To-day  the  peasants  will 
show  the  routes  of  the  armies  that  battled  on  his  ac- 
count. Only  for  the  Boyne  combat,  James  would  have 
retained  the  sympathy  and  esteem  of  his  Irish  subjects. 
But  cowardice  is  a  vice  which  Hibernians  will  not  con- 
done. And  to  those  who  knew  not  his  inner  story, 
and  the  difficulties  of  a  seaman  fighting  on  land,  the 
conduct  of  England's  greatest  admiral  on  that  occasion 

395 


Mary  of  Modcna  —  He7' 

seems  inexcusable.  In  modern  warfare  one  does  not 
see  the  head  of  the  navy  leading  an  army  to  victory, 
nor  would  the  general  of  an  army  be  selected  to  com- 
mand a  fleet. 

Close  to  the  famous  battlefield  is  "  King  William's 
Glen,"  a  wild  region  covered  with  the  largest  and  most 
beautiful  ferns  we  ever  saw.  An  ancient  peasant  pointed 
out  to  us  the  plan  of  the  battle.  He  said  that  the 
plough  and  the  spade  had  often  turned  up  ghastly  me- 
morials of  the  ill-fated  day,  as  skulls  and  bones,  and 
that  when  he  was  a  boy  spurs  and  broken  weapons 
gathered  here  were  preserved  as  curiosities  by  some 
neighboring  families.  Of  poor  James  the  Unlucky,  he 
spoke  with  loathing,  and  repeated  the  story  of  the  Irish 
crying  out:  "Change  kings  and  we'll  fight  the  battle 
over  again."  Another  old  man  said  that  James  checked 
the  ardor  of  his  soldiers  by  exclaiming:  "O  do  not 
make  my  daughter  a  widow!"  Had  James  remained 
in  France,  or  even  in  Dublin,  his  men  would  have  won 
the  day. 

(Near  Aughrim  is  the  "Bridge  of  a  Thousand  Heads," 
and  the  field  called,  in  the  expressive  Irish  tongue, 
"The  Cry  of  the  Heart."  The  peasants  still  speak  of 
the  Jacobite  wars,  and  say  that  a  thousand  heads  fell 
defending  the  bridge,  and  when  the  armies  had  moved 
on,  and  the  women  came  to  look  for  the  bodies  of  their 
kin,  their  shrieks  were  such  as  to  give  that  sad  name  to 
the  historic  field.  Aughrim  Castle  is  to-day  little  bet- 
ter than  a  huge  moss-grown  ruin.  Aughrim  is  now  an 
inconsiderable   village    on  the  carriage   road   between 

396 


Descendan  ts  —  TIi  c   J  a  cob  ites 

Ballinasloe  and  Loughrea.  Many  curious  details  are 
preserved  in  contemporary  ballad,  "  The  Lass  of  Augh- 
rim.") 

The  king  died  the  death  of  a  saint  in  1701.  His 
youngest  and  fairest  child,  Princess  Louisa  Stuart,  born 
1691,  cheered  his  declining  years.  The  conjugal  tender- 
ness of  his  devoted  wife  never  abated.  She  was  still 
one  of  the  loveliest  women  in  Europe,  and  retained  to 
the  last  the  graceful,  sylph-like  form,  which  made  her  a 
contrast  to  the  portly  Anne  Hyde.  Her  wit  and  regnal 
talents  were  acknowledged  in  France,  where  she  became 
immensely  popular.  Madame  de  Sevigne,  granddaugh- 
ter of  St.  Jane  Frances  de  Chantal,  who  was,  next  to  the 
great  Louis  himself,  the  acutest  observer  at  the  French 
court,  has  not  words  to  describe  the  beauty,  dignity, 
and  grace  of  the  English  queen.  "  Every  one,"  she 
writes,  "  is  much  pleased  with  this  queen,  she  has  so 
much  wit.  On  seeing  Louis  XIV.  caressing  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  who  is  very  beautiful,  she  said  :  '  I  had  envied 
the  happiness  of  my  son  in  being  unconscious  of  his 
misfortunes,  but  now  I  regret  the  unconsciousness  which 
prevents  him  from  being  sensible  of  your  majesty's 
goodness.'  Everything  she  says  is  full  of  good  sense." 
The  fastidious  Louis  XIV.  regarded  her  as  a  model  of 
regal  grace,  praised  her  beauty,  her  manner,  her  wit,  her 
perfect  devotion  to  her  husband,  and  pointing  her  out 
to  his  German  daughter-in-law,  La  Grande  Dauphine, 
significantly  said:  "  See  what  a  queen  ought  to  be." 
He  envied  James  the  treasure  he  possessed  in  her. 
Her  virtue  made  him  revere  her.     "  She  was  a  queen  in 

397 


Mary  of  Modena  —  Her 

her  prosperity,"  he  said,  "  but  in  her  adversity  she  is  an 
angel."  No  woman  of  history  has  been  more  traduced, 
but  she  never  uttered  an  evil  word  of  her  husband's 
daughters  and  nephew.  When  their  crimes  were  men- 
tioned in  her  presence  she  would  say :  "As  we  cannot 
praise  them,  we  will  not  speak  of  tliem,  since  it  only 
excites  irritation,  and  gives  rise  to  feelings  that  cannot 
be  pleasing  to  God."  Those  who  knew  her  intimately 
described  her  conduct  and  deportment  as  saintly. 

XI 

Meanwhile,  how  fared  the  triumphant  faction? 
William  and  Mary  did  not  live  happily  together.  Like 
many  another  wife,  the  more  shamefully  her  husband 
treated  her,  the  more  devoted  she  was  to  his  interests, 
which  were,  indeed,  her  own.  Her  letters  to  him  are 
love  letters,  but  whether  she  felt  genuine  affection  for 
so  coarse  and  rude  a  prince  may  be  doubted.  She 
yielded  to  him  her  place  in  the  succession,  but  without 
him  she  could  not  have  been  queen.  The  slights  he 
put  upon  her  through  at  least  two  of  the  Villiers's  sis- 
ters were  such  as  no  woman  could  easily  forget  or  for- 
give. That  her  intellect  was  above  the  average  her 
letters  and  her  administration  in  her  husband's  absence 
show.  The  possibility,  and  sometimes  probability  that 
her  father  would  be  restored  disturbed  her  peace.  The 
people  were  fearfully  taxed.  Trade  and  commerce  de- 
clined. The  military  sovereign  seemed  to  regard  his 
people  merely  as  "  food  for  powder."  He  was  always 
fighting,  but  scarcely  ever  gained  a  victory. 

39« 


Dcscenda>its  —  The   yacobites 

In  the  absence  of  this  unlucky  warrior  Mary  con- 
ducted the  affairs  of  state  with  marked  ability,  but  she 
was  severe  rather  than  merciful.  Authors,  artists,  and 
musicians  became  very  scarce  at  court.  Dryden,  the 
greatest  literary  man  of  the  age,  was  dismissed  from  the 
laureateship,  which  she  bestowed  on  the  wretched 
rhymster,  Shadwell.  The  revolutionary  sovereigns 
showed  much  enmity  towards  Dryden,  which  "  Glori- 
ous John  "  cordially  reciprocated.  When  his  publishe.r, 
Jacob  Tronson,  put  the  head  of  William  in  the  charac- 
ter of  the  pious  Eneas,  for  a  frontispiece  to  the  transla- 
tion of  Virgil,  the  irate  poet  wrote : 

"  Old  Jacob,  in  his  wondrous  mood, 
To  please  the  wise  beholders, 
Has  placed  old  Nassau's  hook-nosed  head 
On  wise  Eneas's  shoulders. 

"  To  make  the  parallel  hold  tack, 

Methinks  there's  something  lacking, 
One  took  his  father  pick-a-back ; 
The  other  sent  his  a-packing." 

Day  after  day  Queen  Mary  sat  among  her  courtiers 
knitting  thread  fringes  —  a  curious  occupation  for  the 
majesty  of  England,  which  the  London  wits  did  not 
overlook.     Sir  Charles  Sedley  wrote  : 

"  O  happy  people,  ye  must  thrive, 
While  thus  the  royal  pair  do  strive. 

Both  to  advance  your  glory ; 
While  he,  by  valor,  conquers  France, 
She  manufactures  does  advance. 

And  makes  thread  fringes  for  ye. 

399 


Mary  of  Modejia  —  Her 

"  Blest  we  who  from  such  queens  are  freed, 
Who  by  vain  superstition  led, 
Are  always  telling  beads; 
But  here's  a  queen,  now  thanks  to  God, 
Who  when  she  rides  in  coach  abroad. 
Is  always  knitting  threads. 

"Then  haste,  victorious  Nassau,  haste. 
And  when  thy  summer  show  is  past. 

Let  all  thy  trumpets  sound. 
The  fringe  which  this  campaign  has  wrought, 
Though  it  cost  the  nation  but  a  groat. 

Thy  conquests  will  surround." 

Sedley's  infamous  daughter  said  to  Queen  Mary: 
"I  have  not  sinned  more  grievously  against  the  seventh 
commandment  than  you  have  against  your  father  in 
breaking  the  fifth."  Archbishop  Bancroft  refused  to 
crown  her,  and  when  she  asked  his  blessing  said :  "  Get 
your  father's  blessing  first ;  without  that  mine  would 
be  of  no  avail." 

Mary  spent  her  life  as  queen  at  enmity  with  her 
sister,  Anne.  She  died  of  smallpox,  December  28, 
1696,  in  the  thirty-third  year  of  her  age,  and  the  sixth 
of  her  reign.  From  over-indulgence  in  eating  —  her 
enemies  add,  in  drinking  —  she  had  grown  to  an  im- 
mense size,  and  the  contrast  was  ludicrous  when  she 
appeared  abroad  with  her  short,  lean,  shriveled  hus- 
band. Their  wax  figures,  preserved  in  a  glazed  case  at 
Westminster  Abbey,  show  the  queen  as  very  tall ;  Wil- 
liam, though  perched  on  a  stool,  is  a  dwarf  in  compari- 
son. Mary  left  a  letter  reproaching  him  with  the 
iniquity  of  his  conduct  toward  her  during  their  whole 

400 


Dcsce  n  da  n  ts  —  Th  e   J  a  cobitcs 

married  life,  and  asked  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
to  reprove  him.  He  took  the  reproof  well,  and  saw 
Elizabeth  Villiers  no  more  —  in  England.  Holland 
was  their  future  rendezvous. 

Like  Mary,  William  died  at  enmity  with  all  his  rela- 
tives. Full  of  plans  against  the  peace  of  Europe,  he 
sent  his  favorite  Keppel  to  bring  him  news  as  to  how 
matters  stood  for  new  campaigns.  He  was  almost  dead 
when  Keppel  returned,  and,  for  the  first  time,  martial 
tidings  awoke  no  interest  in  him.  "  Je  tire  vers  ma  fin" 
(I  draw  towards  my  end),  said  he.  Neither  Anne  nor 
her  husband  was  allowed  to  approach  him.  A  black 
ribbon  which  bound  his  wrist  was  found  to  contain 
Queen  Mary's  hair. 

Though  head  of  the  church  and  defender  of  the 
faith,  it  is  doubtful  if  William  was  even  baptized.  The 
same  is  said  of  Archbishop  Tillotson.  A  squib  of  the 
day  says  : 

"  That  schismatical  primate  and  Hollander  kint^ 
Are  still  in  the  want  of  a  christening." 

The  actions  of  this  prince  should  consign  him  to  the 
Gehenna  of  history.  The  burning  of  the  sick  soldiers 
at  Waterford,  the  violation  of  the  Treaty  of  Limerick, 
the  massacre  of  Glencoe,  flogging  in  the  army,  the 
pocketing  of  the  revenues  of  Anne  and  her  son,  the 
creating  of  informers  by  awards  of  blood  money  — 
these  are  but  a  few.  Perhaps  the  greatest  evil  he  did 
was  to  encourage  the  distillation  of  ardent  spirits. 
Had  he  possessed  the  virtues  of  St.  Louis,  they  would 
26  ^oi 


Mary  of  Modena  —  Her 

have  been  neutralized  by  his  love  for  whisky  and  his 
efforts  to  promote  the  same  among  his  unfortunate 
people.  It  was  against  the  law  to  change  malt  into 
spirits,  save  a  small  quantity  for  medical  purposes. 
William  had  this  beneficent  law  repealed.  By  word 
and  example,  he  encouraged  the  use  of  fire  water. 
He  went  frequently  to  the  House  of  Lords  to  recom- 
mend its  manufacture,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  journals 
of  that  house.  Gin  palaces  were  opened  for  the  sale  of 
ardent  spirits,  heretofore  sold  only  in  drug  stores. 
Miss  Strickland  writes  truly :  "  Most  of  the  crime  and 
sorrow  of  the  present  day,  and,  indeed,  the  greatest 
national  misfortune  that  ever  befell  this  country  (Eng- 
land) originated  from  the  example  of  William  HI.  and 
his  Dutch  courtiers,  as  imbibers  of  ardent  spirits."  Un- 
fortunately, this  vice  exists  more  or  less  wherever  the 
English  language  is  spoken,  and  is  the  curse,  the  dis- 
grace of  our  boasted  civilization.  "William's  personal 
tastes  and  his  desire  to  induce  the  consumption  of  a 
taxable  article,  were  the  causes  of  his  conduct." 
Macaulay's  hero  is  one  of  the  most  unfortunate  char- 
acters in  history.  Drunkenness,  murders,  bribes  are 
connected  with  him.  Even  the  "  Peep-o'-Day  Boys  "  of 
the  last  century  who  swore  to  wade  knee-deep  in  Papist 
blood,  who  defiled  themselves  by  every  crime  the  di- 
vine law  forbids,  and  whose  evil  deeds  are  a  blot  upon 
our  own  day,  could  find  no  more  appropriate  patron 
than  the  peevish  warrior  of  Nassau,  and  no  better  name 
to  express  the  frightful  objects  of  their  confederacy 
than —  Orangemen. 

403 


Descendants  —  TJie   yacohites 

XII 

If  God  allowed  James  II.  to  be  deprived  of  his  king- 
doms, He  gave  him  better  gifts.  Henceforth  he  led  the 
life  of  a  saint.  Often  did  he  thank  God  for  the  loss  of 
his  triple  crowns  —  he  had  only  to  change  his  religion 
to  recover  them  —  but  his  heart  was  set  on  a  heavenly 
kingdom. 

March  4,  1701,  while  in  the  chapel  of  St.  Germain's, 
the  aged  king  was  deeply  affected  by  the  anthem  : 
"Remember,  O  Lord!  what  has  come  upon  us.  Con- 
sider and  behold  our  reproach  ;  our  inheritance  is  turned 
to  strangers,  our  houses  to  aliens."  These  touching 
words  overcame  him.  He  was  attacked  by  sanguineous 
apoplexy,  and  carried  from  the  church.  "I  suffer  more 
than  he  does,"  wrote  his  faithful  wife,  "in  anticipation 
of  greater  sufferings  for  him."  He  was  no  longer  able 
to  walk  without  the  support  of  her  arm.  In  September 
he  passed  away,  with  so  high  a  reputation  for  sanctity 
that  his  canonization  was  spoken  of,  and  it  was  said 
that  miracles  were  wrought  at  his  bier. 

To  his  son  he  gave  excellent  advice.  His  words  to 
his  lovely  daughter  whom  he  called  "La  Consolatrice," 
are  singularly  beautiful : 

"Adieu,  child.  Serve  your  Creator  in  the  days  of 
your  youth.  Consider  virtue  as  the  great  ornament  of 
your  sex.  Follow  closely  after  that  great  pattern  of  it, 
your  mother,  who  has  been,  no  less  than  myself,  over- 
clouded with  calumnies ;  but  Time,  the  mother  of  Truth, 
will,  I  hope,  at  last  make  her  virtues  shine  as  bright  as 
the  sun" — a  hope  splendidly  verified. 

403 


Mary  of  JSIodoia  —  Ho' 

James  desired  to  be  buried  in  Westminster,  at  the 
restoration  of  his  family,  but  the  sceptre  had  passed 
away  from  the  royal  Stuarts.  His  body  remained 
unburied  at  the  Benedictine  Church,  Paris,  and  was 
reverenced  at  the  height  of  the  Revolution,  when  the 
ashes  of  the  French  monarchs  were  scattered  to  the 
wind.  In  1813,  he  was  buried  in  the  Parish  Church  of 
Germain's.  Quite  recently,  the  writer  sought  the  spot 
where  the  remains  of  the  last  Catholic  king  of  England 
repose.  A  modest  monument  of  black  and  white  mar- 
ble records  his  name  and  rank,  in  Latin. 

An  Irish  gentleman,  Mr.  Fitzsimmons,  who  was  im- 
prisoned in  the  Benedictine  Convent  in  the  Reign  of 
Terror,  writes,  in  Notes  and  Queries:  "In  1794  the 
embalmed  body  of  James  II.  was  in  one  of  the  chapels 
awaiting  interment  in  Westminster  Abbey.  It  was  in 
a  wooden  coffin  enclosed  in  a  leaden  one,  and  that 
again  in  one  covered  with  black  velvet.  The  corpse 
was  very  beautiful  and  perfect ;  the  hair  and  nails  were 
very  fine.  I  never  saw  so  fine  a  set  of  teeth  in  my  life. 
A  young  lady,  a  fellow  prisoner,  wished  much  to  have 
a  tooth.  I  tried  to  get  one  for  her,  but  could  not,  they 
were  so  firmly  fixed.  The  feet  also  were  beautiful. 
The  face  and  cheeks  were  just  as  if  he  were  alive.  I 
rolled  his  eyes  and  the  eyeballs  were  perfectly  firm 
under  my  fingers.  Around  the  chapel  were  several 
wax  molds,  made  probably  at  the  time  of  the  king's 
death;  the  corpse  was  very  like  them." 

To  this  bier  poor  Mary  Beatrice  made  many  a  pilgrim- 
age during  the  16  years  she  survived  her  "sainted  king." 

404 


Descendants  —  TIw   Jacobites 

Anne  succeeded  William  in  1702,  but  not  for  her 
own  happiness.  On  the  death  of  her  son,  in  1700, 
she  had  promised  her  father  to  do  justice  to  her 
brother,  but  justice  was  never  done  the  unfortunate 
prince.  Though  mother  of  eighteen  children,  she 
was  childless,  and  her  exaltation  only  made  her,  as 
she  pathetically  said,  "a  crowned  slave."  Her  last 
hours  were  disturbed  by  visions  of  that  hapless 
brother  whom  she  had  irreparably  injured,  and  she 
continually  moaned  :  "O,  my  brother,  my  poor  brother, 
what  will  become  of  you  now?"  These  were  her  last 
words. 

Mary  Beatrice,  who  but  for  her  children  would  have 
taken  the  veil  at  the  Visitation  Convent,  Chaillot, 
closed  her  life  by  a  holy  death,  May  7,  1718.  Her 
beautiful  daughter,  Louise  Stuart,  preceded  her  to  the 
tomb.  The  Stuart  cause  was  never  more  prosperous 
than  when  managed  by  the  royal  widow  —  a  regent 
without  a'realm.  Her  eloquence  brought  the  French 
princes  and  Madame  de  Maintenon  to  her  side. 
Through  reverent  love  for  her,  the  Grand  Monarch, 
whose  generosity  and  delicate  courtesy  to  the  fallen 
Stuarts  half  redeem  him,  allowed  her  son  to  be  pro- 
claimed James  HI.,  King  of  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and 
even  France,  at  the  gates  of  the  Chateau  of  St.  Ger- 
mains. 

xni 

The  Stuart  dynasty  was  singularly  gifted  and 
singularly    unfortunate.      Its  graceful    princes,    liberal 

405 


Alary  of  Modena  —  Her 

patrons  of  art,  literature,  and  music,  were  frank,  courte- 
ous, and  gay  with  their  loving  lieges,  and  their  charming 
manners  covered  many  faults.  They  were  peace-lov- 
ing sovereigns,  and  never  needlessly  embroiled  their 
subjects  in  foreign  wars.  History,  which  records  their 
ill  deeds  with  merciless  fidelity,  has  too  little  to  say  of 
their  generosity  and  kindness.  The  fallen  Stuarts 
evoked  the  last  genuine  loyalty  the  world  has  seen. 
Whole  families  accompanied  them  into  exile.  Nobles 
from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  surrounded  the  car  of 
the  vanquished.  The  personal  attendants  of  the  queen 
followed  her,  though  their  fidelity  meant  outlawry  and 
the  confiscation  of  their  estates.  The  cause,  always  a 
losing  or  a  lost  one,  inspired  poets,  and  Jacobite  songs 
inferior  only  to  Moore's  Melodies  are  still  sung  with 
enthusiasm.  Under  foreign  military  sovereigns  who 
had  no  sympathy  with  the  people,  many  fondly  turned 
to  "  the  king  over  the  water."  Under  various  types 
and  figures  they  besought  him  to  "  come  hame."  The 
ill-favored  king,  who,  unlike  the  Stuarts,  "hated  boetry 
and  bainting,"  was  satirized  as  "  The  wee,  wee  German 
Lairdie."  Rhymsters  bewailed  in  bold  doggerel  the 
evil  consequences  of  James  Stuart's  act  when  he  "gave 
his  daughter  to  an  Granger."  Charles  Edward  suc- 
ceeded his  father  in  the  love  of  the  Jacobites,  and 
many  a  song  that  now  obsolete  deity,  "  the  muse,"  in- 
spired for  him  :  "  What's  a'  the  steer,  Kimmer  ?  "  "  Come 
over  the  stream,  Charlie,  dear  Charlie,  brave  Charlie," 
"  O  gin  I  were  a  Bonnie  Bird,"  "  Welcome,  Royal  Char- 
lie," "  Wha  wadna  fecht  for  Charlie  ?" 

406 


Descendants  —  TIic   Jacobites 

When  the  butchery  of  Culloden  extinguished  the 
Stuart  hopes,  the  poet  nnourns  over  the  dashing  hero, 
Charles  Edward,  in  many  an  exquisite  strain  : 

"A  -wee  bird  cam'  to  our  ha'  door, 
He  warbled  sweet  and  clearly. 
And  aye  the  out-come  o'  his  song, 

Was  '  Wae's  me  for  Prince  Charlie  !  '  " 

These  poets  sang  as  the  wild  bird  sings.  The  suc- 
cess and  misfortunes  of  the  Stuarts  inspired  more  bal- 
lads than  those  of  any  other  dynasty  the  world  ever 
saw.  Words  touched  by  the  alchemy  of  genius  trilled 
in  ravishing  notes,  and  awaken  enthusiasm  to-day  by 
their  impassioned  love  pleadings. 

The  contempt  of  the  Irish  peasantry  for  James  II. 
was  not  transferred  to  his  son  or  grandson.  By  the 
hillside  and  by  the  streams,  "the  king"  was  invited 
home  in  pathetic  verse.  The  genuine  merit  of  some  of 
these  effusions  has  won  lasting  fame.  "  The  Royal 
Blackbird  "  is  still  warbled  by  the  Irish  peasant  to  a 
tune  rich  and  wild  as  the  native  wood-notes  of  the  king 
of  song-birds.  "Adieu  Forevermore,"  and  many  kin- 
dred songs  make  us  regret  that  the  song-writers  of  our 
day  lack  the  inspiration  of  the  Carolans,  the  Connellans, 
and  the  other  "  Wandering  Willies  "  of  the  Jacobite  era. 

The  exiled  Stuart  race,  which  renounced  so  much 
for  the  Catholic  religion,  ended,  appropriately,  in  a 
priest.  Cardinal  York,*  the  titular  Henry  IX.,  who  died 

*  George  III.  bestowed  a  pension  of  £5,000  a  year  on  Cardinal 
York,  which  was  badly  needed,  as  the  Cardinal's  bishopric,  Fras- 
cati,  had  been  ravaged  by  the  wars  early  in  the  present  century, 

407 


Mary  of  Mode  na — Her  Descendants — The  Jacobites 

in  1808.  After  1688,  the  Stuart  titular  kings  nominated 
the  Catholic  bishops  of  Ireland,  though  this  was  not 
generally  known.  In  St.  Peter's,  Rome,  near  the  great 
entrance,  is  the  Stuart  monument,  by  Canova,  on  which 
the  elder  and  younger  pretenders  (?)  and  Cardinal  York, 
are  commemorated  respectively  as  James  III.,  Charles 
Edward,  and  Henry  IX.,  Kings  of  England,  Ireland, 
Scotland,  and  France.  Opposite  is  the  tomb  of  Mary 
Clementine,  of  Poland,  granddaughter  of  the  great 
Sobieski,  wife  of  the  Pretender  (?)  James  III.,  and 
mother  of  "Bonnie  Prince  Charlie"  and  Henry  IX. 
Her  monument,  surmounted  by  a  half  length  portrait 
of  Her  Majesty,  commemorates  her  as  Queen  of  Great 
Britain,  Ireland,  and  France.  Except  James  I.  and 
Charles  I.,  all  the  Stuart  sovereigns  were  Catholics. 
Henry  Stuart,  Cardinal  York,  grandson  of  Mary  Bea- 
trice and  James  II.,  a  kind  and  gentle  prince,  died 
Bishop  of  Frascati.  And  so  the  most  picturesque  and 
romantic  of  dynasties  passed  away  forever  and  became 
only  a  sad  and  touching  memory. 

An  enormous  sum,  counting  principal  and  interest,  was  due  the 
Cardinal  from  the  money  voted  by  Parliament  for  his  grandmother, 
Qiieen  Mary  Beatrice,  most  of  which  was  never  paid,  though  he 
made  many  efforts  to  recover  it.  Cardinal  York  returned  to  the 
English  king  some  of  the  crown  jewels  which  he  inherited  from 
]ames  II.,  through  his  father,  James  III.,  the  so-called  Pretender. 


408 


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